The New Zealand Super Fund has bought half of the former Evergreen Forests from the fund which beat it in an outright bid for listed Evergreen last month.
James Fielding Funds Management last month paid $115 million for Evergreen, outbidding NZSF by $3m.
NZSF said it had bought 12,273ha of
forestry estate near Auckland for an undisclosed price.
NZSF will acquire the ex-Evergreen land and forestry estates around the Auckland area (including the Coroglen, Endean, Kopu, Patetonga, Putawa and Rototuna forests) while Fielding's will retain 13,344ha around the Gisborne region.
NZSF, which now has assets of $7.6 billion, said it had also appointed GMO Renewable Resources (GMO) as a manager of New Zealand timber assets. These assets will form part of that mandate.
The transaction is the first purchase of timber assets for NZSF. In March, NZSF said it planned to allocate up to 5 per cent of assets to timber by June 2007, with a targeted mid-point of 2 per cent by that date.
"As a long term investor, with no requirement for regular cash flows from investments, NZSF is well suited to hold timber as an asset class."
Evergreen sold the forests because it was loaded down with $70m of debt.
Fielding's chief executive Adrian Harrington said the assets were not suited to the long-term profile of its New Zealand Sustainable Investments Fund.
NZSF forced the Sydney-based fund manager to increase its Evergreen bid by $10m last month after bidding $112m for Evergreen.
Mr Harrington said the Mirvac-owned Fielding shared a common investment philosophy and selling half to NZSF gave it a chance to build a relationship with New Zealand's biggest pension fund.
The Fielding fund retained 13,444ha of freehold land and forestry assets in the Gisborne region on the East Coast.
Fielding's purchase of Evergreen is conditional on Overseas Investment Office approval and is expected to be settled at the end of this month.
- NZPA
