The Dasos Timberland Fund has a total of e100m in assets under management, of which some 80 per cent is held by pension funds and insurance companies in the Nordic region.

Current investors include European Investment Bank (EIB), the e26.3bn Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company and seven medium-sized Finnish pension funds.

Olli Haltia, chief executive officer at Dasos Capital, said it is now negotiating with two Finnish pensions institutions about investments in the fund.

“Interest in timberland investments throughout Europe is increasing. Some five years ago, 90 per cent of all timberland investments were from North America and totalled $50bn. Today, timberland investments globally total $70bn, of which 80 per cent is from North America. Timberland investing is only now becoming a trend in Europe,” Mr Haltia told nrpn.

Many Nordic pension funds are, however, hesitant to invest and prefer to see how their peers fare before deciding on their own strategy, according to Mr Haltia. Timberland has previously primarily been an asset class popular among Danish institutional investors, with a large number of Danish pension funds having a significant allocation to forestry.

“Many of our investors are investing in timberland for the very first time, but they have said that they most likely intend to allocate more funds to timberland in the future,” Mr Haltia said.

Ilmarinen’s chief investment officer, Timo Ritakallio, said that its e2.1m investment in the fund, which gives it exposure to Latin American timberland, is a way for the pension insurance company to diversify its holdings. “Through this investment, we want to learn about and understand the opportunities in this sector. We will top up our holdings in timberland in the future, which so far has been a positive experience,” said Mr Ritakallio.

Over the last quarter, Dasos Timberland Fund yielded a return of 20.4 per cent.

The assets of the fund are invested in Eastern Europe, South-East Asia and Latin America. Typical investments in the fund range between e10m and e20m. “In addition, we are considering investing in certain African countries, like Tanzania and Mosambique, where forestry has a lot of potential to grow,” Mr Haltia said.

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