Building on the success of its Baltic forests fund, INVL creates new vehicle for investment in forests and agricultural land across Central and Eastern Europe.
INVL Asset Management, one of the largest asset management companies in the Baltics, has established a new fund specifically designed for investment in farmland and forests: INVL Sustainable Forest and Agricultural Land Fund II (SFALF II).
With a target size of 100 million euros, an initial offering of the fund has raised 32.45 million euros from private investors. The fund will invest in sustainably-managed forests and agricultural land in the Baltic Sea region as well as throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
The new INVL fund is registered in Luxembourg and administered by Apex Group, one of the biggest providers of fund services in Europe. The SFALF II is intended for institutional and private investors from EU countries.
“We see this fund as a continuation of the INVL Baltic Forests Fund I which was founded in 2017, but more universal and much broader in geography,” says Vytautas Plunksnis, head of private equity at INVL Asset Management. “The experience we gained, and investors’ trust, encouraged us to realise the idea of creating long-term portfolios of top-quality forests and agricultural land and managing them according to the strictest standards of sustainable forestry and agriculture. In acting on those goals we did not set any time frame for the fund – its length is unlimited.”
He said the fund’s maximum size will be limited and may not exceed 200 million euros, though its investor composition may change as some of its participants take advantage of the right to leave the fund within a certain period of time and others take their place.
“We’ll start the fund’s activities ‘closer to home’, looking for acquisitions in the Baltic countries,” adds Martynas Samulionis, a partner of the INVL Sustainable Forest and Agricultural Land Fund II. “We will invest in Baltic coniferous forests and agricultural land with a high level of productivity and big consolidation potential. Later, we plan to expand the portfolio in eastern EU countries where investment returns are attractive and the regulatory environment is stable. We will heavily emphasise sustainable management of the forests and arable land, considering not just nature conservation but also social responsibility in investing in these asset classes. The fund will operate according to sustainable forestry standards, and we will implement sustainable farming principles on the agricultural land.”
The SFALF II fund is regulated and will operate according to the laws of Luxembourg and will invest in different countries in keeping with the regulatory limits set by those countries but without deviating from the fund’s strategy.
One of Lithuania’s leading asset management companies, INVL Asset Management is part of the Invalda INVL group, established in 1991. The group’s companies manage pension and mutual funds, individual portfolios, private equity and other alternative investments. They have more than one billion euros of assets under management, entrusted to them by over 200,000 clients in Lithuania and Latvia as well as international investors.
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