Fletcher Forests efforts to sell its forests is one of a number of forest industry ‘stories’ that illustrate major changes that are occurring in the New Zealand forest industry at present.
Our interest is in the eventual price and who the successful buyer will be. We believe the price will represent a “steal" as the industry is currently at or near the bottom of a trough. So whoever buys it can expect plenty of upside in the next few years.
The successful buyer is likely to be one of the many USA pension funds who already own a large percentage of New Zealand’s radiata forests. The reader may have noticed names such as John Hancock, Campbell, Prudential, Xylem and Harvard in connection with forest sales. These are a few of dozens of USA pension funds who are interested in New Zealand forests.