Evli has launched the new Evli Impact Forest Fund I, which provides institutional investors and high net worth individuals access to the world’s leading forestry funds.
Evli has chosen a global investment strategy for the new fund because of the higher return expectation: for example, in the US, forestry has historically returned over 8 percent annually compared to 4.5 percent in the Nordic countries*.
“Trees simply grow faster in the countries where we will invest, and happily, this drives both the carbon impact and higher return. For example, an investment of EUR 1 million in the Evli Impact Forest Fund I can remove an estimated 21,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. The fund’s carbon sequestration impact is monitored and reported to investors on a regular basis,” portfolio manager Roger Naylor comments.
The fund is managed by an experienced portfolio management team of six persons, with Roger Naylor (M.Sc. Forest Economics) as the main portfolio manager. Naylor has more than 16 years’ experience in forestry investing.
The fund operates a fund of funds strategy, with the best 6-8 global forest funds selected for the investment portfolio. The fund focuses on low-risk strategies and low-risk countries. Most of the investments are made in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
“Up to 65 percent of the forest investments in our portfolio will be in the US. These forests provide good cash flow and are located in areas with large forest industries. Another important area is plantation forests in South America, where the trees grow exceptionally fast: eucalyptus trees, for instance, can grow many times faster than trees in Europe,” Naylor adds.
According to Tero Tuominen, Managing Director of Evli Fund Management Company Ltd Evli, Impact Forest Fund I is a natural continuation to Evli's alternative investment fund offering. “Forest investment complements Evli's offering of alternative investment products, and therefore clients are offered an even better opportunity to diversify their investment portfolios. In addition, forestry is a defensive asset class, which withstands economic fluctuations well”, he explains.
Evli's alternative investment product offering covers real estate, unlisted equities, infrastructure and forestry, which are managed through eight funds. Evli's expertise in alternative investment products dates back to 2005, when Evli was the first in Finland to start real estate investment in the form of a fund. Today, Evli's alternative investments portfolio management team consists of 20 investment professionals, and the funds' total assets under management have risen above EUR 1 billion.
See also: Evli Impact Forest Fund I website
For more information, please contact:
Tero Tuominen, Managing Director, Evli Fund Management Company Ltd, tel. +358 50 439 2867, tero.tuominen@evli.com
*Sources: NCREIF & Luke (Natural Resources Institute Finland)
