Stafford Capital Partners, a fund manager, has established a new timberland continuation fund. The 1.2bn Stafford International Timberland Continuation Fund, is a ‘roll-up’ of three of its core timberland funds – SIT VI, VII and VIII.
The new vehicle, a perpetual fund, will hold 74 timberland assets across New Zealand, Australia, Latin America and the US. Its combined portfolio will encompass over 6.3m acres of commercial timberland.
“The establishment of the Continuation Fund follows closely behind our USD 1 billion close of SIT X, our tenth core timberland fund. We believe this further signals the growing momentum and institutional interest in timberland as a strategic asset class”, commented Angus Whiteley, Stafford Capital Partners’ chief executive.
Whiteley says the continuation fund offers investors diversification benefits as well as an active investment management strategy.
Investors interest in three core funds has rolled over into its continuation vehicle. In a statement, Stafford confirmed that 73% of investors in the three funds have committed to staying on.
The fund received particularly high interest from UK Local Government Pension Schemes, who now account for 54% of the continuation fund.
The LGPS sector has backed Stafford’s offering over the years. In June last year, the UK’s ACCESS Pool selected Stafford as its sole global timberland manager with an initial mandate of £300m. Back in 2022, Essex Pension Fund made an anchor commitment for Stafford’s Carbon Offset Opportunity Fund.
“The strong support from our existing investors demonstrates the continued confidence in our timberland strategy and in a market that continues to deliver stable returns”, said Stephen Addicot, managing partner at Stafford Capital Partners.
“The Continuation fund offers investors an opportunity to maintain exposure to a highly diversified, mature timberland portfolio with attractive cash yields and long-term value”, he added.
