Australasian forestry investor OneFortyOne, backed by Australia鈥檚 Future Fund and industry superannuation funds, have acquired a plantation estate from a fund managed by New Forests.
The sale price for the Limestone Coast plantation forests wasn鈥檛 disclosed, but it鈥檚 believed to be around A$300m (鈧�170.5m).
The asset formed part of the portfolio of the Australia New Zealand Forest Fund 2 (ANZFF2) after New Forests acquired it in 2014. ANZFF2 has begun divesting assets as it comes to the end of its term.
OneFortyOne CEO Wendy Norris said: 鈥淭he acquisition represents a decade-first investment in forestry of this scale by an Australian company. This is significant for OneFortyOne and for the future potential of Australian softwood production.鈥�
Norris said the additional 15,000ha would expand the firm鈥檚 Green Triangle, Australian plantation forestry estate by 15%.
鈥淲e are planning decades into the future and are focused on supporting our domestic customers by looking at ways to increase supply of sawlog.鈥�
Explaining the wider significance of the acquisition, Norris said plantation forestry played a crucial role in supporting Australian sovereignty in construction and manufacturing as it would help meet the projected requirement of approximately 2.5m new dwellings by 2034. By 2050, this demand figure is expected to exceed 250,000 new homes annually.
In the absence of new domestic log supply 鈥� and consequently a constrained ability to grow domestic sawn structural timber production 鈥� this potential increased demand would likely be met by offshore imports, with imports potentially doubling from around 20% share of sawn timber demand today, to over 40% by the 2050s.
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