New Forests to sell NZ assets

The four estates, located across New Zealand’s North and South Islands, are being sold as the fund manager completes the term of the second round Australia and New Zealand Forestry fund (ANZFF2).

The four estates are located across New Zealand’s North and South Islands in established forestry regions of Blenheim, Southland, Taupo and Wairarapa and have a combined gross area of almost 16,000 hectares. All the estates apart from Taupo, are freehold, New Forests noted.

New Forests has engaged UBS New Zealand Limited as financial adviser to assist with the potential sale process. The forestry assets also present future carbon market opportunities with around one quarter of the plantations established on post 1989 land which is registered in New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). All four forestry assets have been third-party certified for sustainable forest management.

Last month, New Forests sold a Tasmanian forestry estate to UniSuper and a consortium of European pension funds. UniSuper, the UK’s Pension Protection Fund (PPF), and APG Asset Management N.V (APG) on behalf of its Dutch pension fund client ABP have bought Forico and a 170,000-hectare plantation forestry estate in Tasmania. Under the agreement, the three investors will each own 33% of Forico and the forestry estate. New Forests will be retained to provide investment management services.

Forico is Tasmania’s largest private forest management company and the estate itself is one of Australia’s largest plantation hardwood estates by productive area. It consists of vertically integrated assets and operations spanning approximately 90,000 hectares of productive plantation forest. It also owns key infrastructure along the supply chain consisting of two wood processing mills, a seedling nursery, fibre technology laboratory, and port access via a freehold facility at Long Reach, Tasmania.

Source: fssustainability