LAUNCH OF €100MILLION INTERNATIONAL FORESTRY FUND OFFERS INVESTORS HISTORICAL SAFETY OF INVESTMENT RETURN
The €100million International Forestry Fund, at its Dublin launch today, 6th May 2009. is an open-ended global asset backed fund projecting in excess of 7% compound growth per annum. The Fund is primarily targeted at pension fund trustees, pension and financial institutions and high net worth individuals. The promoters of the Fund, Helvetia Wealth, are a leading Swiss asset management company and have engaged the expertise of Ireland’s largest private forestry asset management company, IFS Asset Managers to manage the forestry assets.
The minimum investment in the International Forestry Fund is €100,000. Existing young forest plantations and bare land, which is suitable for afforestation and reforestation purposes, will be purchased primarily throughout Europe and in Central and South America. The forestry portfolio will incorporate diversified species, age classes, geographic locations and currencies.
IFS Asset Managers currently manage a portfolio of €90million of forestry assets and their strategy is to acquire and manage a productive global portfolio of forestry and land for the new International Forestry Fund. The land required in Ireland for the Fund amounts to approximately 8,000 acres which is almost equivalent to 5 times the size of Europe’s largest public park, the Phoenix Park which consists of 1,700 acres.
Trevor McHugh, Director of the International Forestry Fund, commented at the launch “Forestry Investment is an historical stable asset backed investment. Private and Institutional commercial forestry investment, apart from providing a sustainable socially responsible eco-environmental balanced investment portfolio also offers a consistent return on investment. In the current global economic market this consistent return will now prove invaluable for institutional investors and for those who need an alternative pension vehicle”.
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is a broad based approach to investing that now encompasses an estimated $2.71 trillion out of $25.1 trillion in the U.S. investment market place today. In addition, there is a strong correlation between timber consumption and population growth and it is estimated that the world population will grow by 50% between 2000 and 2030 with global consumption of roundwood predicted to grow by 38% in the same period.
Forestry investment is a long-term investment and biological growth continues regardless of the state of the world economy. According to Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and Chairman of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo, the renowned Boston-based fund managers, forestry is the only low-risk, high-return asset there is: it has, he says “risen steadily in price for 200 years and has returned an average of 6.5% a year for the last century. It is also counter cyclical – it has been the only asset class in existence that has risen in three out of the four market collapses of the 20th century which is comforting in the current economic environment”.
IFS Asset Managers also announced details of the national Seventh Forestry Growth Plan Plc (7th FGP). 7th FGP is a tax efficient, asset backed €2.5million which requires a minimum investment of €750 projecting a 7.5% compound annual rate of return over its 12 year investment term and is open to Irish citizens only.
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Notes to the Editor:
1. Leading institutions including Harvard and Yale Universities hold significant investments in tropical hardwood and northern hemisphere softwood plantations. Harvard increased its percentage of commercial forestry in its USD $43billion Endowment Fund from 4% to 6% in 2008 and now has USD $2.6billion in forestry. Over the last 2 decades Yale’s USD $23billion Endowment Fund has dramatically reduced its dependence on domestic marketability securities by relocating assets to non-traditional asset classes including significant woodland holdings.
2. Japan’s establishment of a forest carbon credit system has signalled a significant benefit for secondary income for forestry investors. The Japanese system is based on the J-ver (Japan Verified Emissions reduction) system launched in November 2008 and will help calculate forest carbon absorption and is the first of its kind. The absorption will be calculated and estimated in credits which can then be sold to carbon dioxide emitting companies already registered in the J-ver system.
3. Helvetia Wealth is a leading Swiss based asset management company and offers specialised asset allocation with capital guaranteed investments, capital protection and alternative investments (commodities, renewable energy, hedge funds and private equity).
4. IFS Asset Managers are Ireland’s largest private forestry asset management company and manage assets exceeding €90million which have achieved a growth rate of 9% per annum.
5. Photographs of both national and international plantations available upon request from eugenegrey@cgi.ie 
