Latest news with #timberland
Forbes
01-08-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Want To Hedge Against Inflation? Buy A Forest
I nvest capital and save the planet at the same time. Own a forest. That's the selling proposition from Angela Davis, who, as president of Campbell Global in Portland, Oregon, oversees $10 billion on behalf of institutions and wealthy individuals. So far she has acquired 1.4 million acres of trees, the majority in the U.S., with some in Australia and New Zealand. Do not expect from timberland the kind of action you'd get from a semiconductor stock. 'Forest investors are typically not looking for high risk and high return,' Davis says. What are they looking for? Four other things: a yield, an inflation hedge, a portfolio-stabilizing lack of correlation to the stock market and the environmental virtue that comes from taking carbon out of the air. Pedro Oliveira for Forbes The yield comes naturally. Trees grow. Douglas fir, the money tree in the Pacific Northwest, is harvested at 45 years of age. A timberland property that contains tracts evenly distributed over the age spectrum will have an average age of 22. This means the wood that can be taken annually from mature trees comes to 4.4% of the total volume of wood in the forest. That 4.4% botanic payout is the starting point for expected return. Log prices, sensitive to homebuilding demands, are extremely volatile, but over the long pull they, and the residual value of cleared land, should keep up with inflation. Add in inflation and a 7% nominal return is within reach. Beyond that, Davis aims to beat the averages by astute management of the land. Her trees absorbed a net two megatons of carbon dioxide last year, generating salable carbon credits. She has 75 foresters on her staff. They keep an eye on bugs and arrange for culling of compromised trees before the damage can spread. When blazes threaten, they bring in bulldozer crews for fire breaks. An acre of Doug fir, left to grow and harvested in year 45, might yield 24,000 board feet of saw timber, worth $17,000 when it arrives at the sawmill. Sounds pretty good, given that forests in Oregon and Washington west of the Cascade Mountains can be had for $4,000 to $7,000 an acre. But there is a long road between the standing tree and the sawmill's check. Landowners in the Northwest lose at least half their revenue to the cost of growing and harvesting wood. Trees must be felled with dangerous and expensive equipment, dragged up muddy and steep slopes with cables, cut into lengths, loaded onto trucks and hauled. Slash (limbs and broken pieces) must be burned or chopped. Reforestation, done right, delivers better yield than would come from natural regeneration, but it's expensive. 'You overplant, then thin, like carrots in a garden,' Davis says. In the years between seedlings and harvest, a portion of the acres will have been lost to fires, floods, insects and disease. A fraction of the acreage—16% in a recent Campbell acquisition on the Olympic peninsula—cannot be cut because it's near a trout stream or an owl's nest. Bears must be bought off; they come out of hibernation so ravenous that they rip the bark off trees unless they are given food baskets. A timber management company like Campbell (acquired in 2021 by JPMorgan Chase) has to be paid. Campbell doesn't disclose fees beyond saying it gets, in hedge fund fashion, a percentage of assets plus a performance bonus. What's left for the investors? The ones who signed up for Campbell's recent $2.3 billion funding round deserve to call themselves contrarian. Although timberland has terrific years, such as between 1991 and the financial crisis, it has done poorly of late. Campbell doesn't release results for any of its partnerships, but you can look at publicly traded real estate investment trusts that own timberland. In the past decade they have delivered a pathetic 4% a year on average, vastly underperforming the stock market. How To Play It By William Baldwin Buy timberland via shares in real estate investment trusts, handy in taxable accounts because their dividends come out as long-term capital gains. The enterprise value (common market capitalization plus debt minus cash) of Rayonier Corporation is $4.4 billion, which comes to $1,800 per acre if you assign no value to its mills. At PotlatchDeltic the corresponding number is $1,900. At both, you get a bit of Douglas fir in the Northwest, but the dominant holding is southern yellow pine, whose price is depressed because of overplanting 30 years ago. Presumably the industry will grow out of that problem. Yields are 4.9% at Rayonier and 4.7% at Potlatch. William Baldwin is Forbes' Investment Strategies columnist. Davis protests that the REITs don't have her flexibility with timing. They all are attached to mills, which they are motivated to keep running. So they cut trees even in years when prices are depressed. Her response to a dip in the log market: 'Let it grow. Sell a higher volume at a higher price later.' Davis was born in Portland 60 years ago, at a time when lumber was the region's economic mainstay. Business is more diversified now, but, she says, 'it's hard to grow up in Portland and not have a connection to the land.' She remembers gleaning hazelnuts as a youngster on a family orchard. Her connection to forestry, though, began not with the outdoors but with spreadsheets. After getting a degree in finance at nearby Linfield University, Davis worked as an auditor and then as an investment analyst for the Oregon state treasurer. She joined Campbell at the turn of the century and will become its chief executive in October. Her job is to use geographic information, climate and tree volume data to predict what will come out of a harvest decades later. A big part of this, as with a vineyard, is assessing terroir—what growth rate can the soil and the rain support? The spreadsheets go out two growth cycles. Ninety years is a long waiting time for even the most patient investors, but they don't have to stick around. A large part of the return comes not from harvesting but from selling acres after the trees have put on some weight. Campbell's last fund has a 12-year exit option. Beginning in the 1980s, environmentalists engineered drastic cutbacks in harvesting from federal timberland. President Trump wants to bring back the chainsaws. Despite the potential competition with her assets, Davis is not opposed. Untended forests are more likely to burn, she says, undoing decades of carbon absorption in a flash. 'For forest health you should be doing some harvesting,' Davis says. 'Take out the dead and dying debris. Put in some roads.' She may have a woodman's ax to grind, but she has a point. If those roads reduce fire risk, they might even find favor with the owls and the bears. More from Forbes Forbes The Best Brokers For Saving On Capital Gains Taxes By William Baldwin Forbes Is Your Broker Gouging You? Use This Guide To The Best Buys In Money Markets By William Baldwin Forbes How To Use Gold And Other Hard Assets To Hedge Against Inflation By William Baldwin Forbes How To Boost Your Cash Yield At Fidelity, Vanguard, Chase And Schwab By William Baldwin Forbes The Best Places To Retire Abroad In 2025 By William P. Barrett
Wall Street Journal
27-07-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
The Pacific Northwest Lumber Industry Hopes for a Trump Bump
SKAMANIA COUNTY, Wash.—This slice of southern Washington is home to some of the most lush and productive timberland in the world, carpeted by Douglas fir and hemlock from the slopes of Mount St. Helens to the Columbia River Gorge. The local lumber industry has shriveled nonetheless. Sawmills have been closing across the Pacific Northwest over the past 30 years. There is just one left in Skamania County, down from six during its logging heyday.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Rohatyn Group Completes Acquisition of Rayonier's 77% Interest in Matariki Forestry Group in New Zealand for $710 Million
NEW YORK & AUCKLAND, New Zealand, June 30, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Rohatyn Group ("TRG"), an investment firm specializing in emerging markets and real assets, today announced it has completed its $710 million acquisition of an entity that holds Rayonier Inc.'s 77% interest in a New Zealand joint venture (Matariki Forestry Group or "MFG"), which manages approximately 287,000 productive acres of timberland. MFG is the third largest forestry operator in New Zealand, with five timberland locations spanning across the north and south islands. MFG harvests over 2.2 million cubic meters per year of timber from its own estate, with balanced distribution between domestic and international markets. "We are very pleased to add this highly productive, large-scale asset to our global portfolio of high-quality timberland investments across North America, South America and Oceania," said Nick Rohatyn, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TRG. "Our dedicated Forestry & Agriculture team will draw on its more than 25-years of experience investing in the region, through multiple cycles, to drive long-term value creation and maximize the returns of this forestry operation." TRG Partner and Head of Forestry & Agriculture ("F&A"), Mike Claridge, added, "Building upon our long record of successful investments in the New Zealand forestry sector, we have for some time sought to identify the right new opportunity in this core softwood plantation geography. We look forward to working closely with the talented MFG team, who are widely recognized industry leaders, as we capitalize on Rayonier's sound stewardship and invest further to build a sustainable, long-term forestry enterprise." With the completion of this transaction, TRG's F&A strategy has over the past four years deployed approximately $2 billion on behalf of select institutional clients seeking diversified exposure to global timberland and agriculture, including in the United States, Australia, Panama, New Zealand and Uruguay. Through its differentiated experience across a range of real asset strategies, TRG's F&A team develops and manages a range of investments across the risk/return spectrum. About TRG Founded in 2002, TRG is an investment management firm specializing in emerging markets and real assets. Headquartered in New York, the firm is comprised of ~150 professionals based in 16 countries across North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. TRG F&A (formerly the business of GMO Renewable Resources) is comprised of a seasoned team of land investment professionals and is dedicated to the acquisition and management of diversified portfolios of timberland and/or farmland for the benefit of its clients. Employing a value-oriented approach, TRG seeks to invest in assets at prices reflecting biological yield potential. The team focuses on properties in lower-risk geographies where commercial forestry and agriculture are well-developed and good title, high-quality management, and adequate infrastructure are available. For more information, please visit View source version on Contacts Media Contact in the US: trg@ Media Contact in NZ: liane@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PotlatchDeltic Executives to Present at REITweek Conference in New York
SPOKANE, Wash., May 22, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PotlatchDeltic Corporation (Nasdaq: PCH) announced today Eric J. Cremers, president and chief executive officer, and Wayne Wasechek, vice president and chief financial officer, will provide a company overview to investors at the REITweek Conference in New York, June 4, 2025 at approximately 8:00 am Eastern Time. The live audio webcast of the presentation will be available via the Investors page on PotlatchDeltic's website at An archived version of the Company's webcast will also be available on this site following the presentation for approximately 30 days. About PotlatchDeltic PotlatchDeltic (Nasdaq: PCH) is a leading Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with ownership of 2.1 million acres of timberlands in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Through its taxable REIT subsidiary, the company also operates six sawmills, an industrial-grade plywood mill, a residential and commercial real estate development business, and a rural timberland sales program. PotlatchDeltic, a leader in sustainable forest management, is committed to corporate responsibility. More information can be found at View source version on Contacts (Investors)Wayne Wasechek509-835-1521 (Media)Anna Torma509-835-1558 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Entrepreneur
19-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Buybacks and Big-Time Developments: 3 Stocks Making Huge Moves
Billions in new buyback capacity, dividend initiation, and a Buffett-backed partnership are among the big news surrounding three large-cap U.S. stocks. This story originally appeared on MarketBeat Several large-cap stocks recently announced buybacks worth billions, boosting their ability to return capital to shareholders. However, these names also have other important recent developments surrounding them that have big implications for shareholders. One company is joining forces with a top Warren Buffett stock pick to give itself a big source of future revenue. Another announced a huge foreign AI deal, and the last company is now returning capital to shareholders in multiple ways. All data used is as of the May 16 close. Weyerhaeuser: Teaming Up With a Buffett-Favorite for Long-Term Revenue Generation [content-module:CompanyOverview|NYSE:WY] First up is Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY). Weyerhaeuser is one of the world's largest owners of timberland, controlling millions of acres of forest used to grow and harvest timber. The company is also one of the largest producers of wood products in North America. Weyerhaeuser recently announced a share buyback program worth $1 billion. The company has spent almost $100 million in buybacks so far in 2025, which completed its previous $1 billion buyback program. For Weyerhaeuser, $1 billion represents around 5% of the company's market capitalization. The company also has a very solid indicated dividend yield of around 3.2%. For Weyerhaeuser, the other important news was an update on its partnership with one of Warren Buffett's biggest recent bets. Weyerhaeuser has a partnership with Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) to capture and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. Weyerhaeuser has agreed to lease 30,000 acres of underground space below its forest to store CO2. Occidental recently announced a 25-year agreement with CF Industries and other partners to store 2.3 million tons a year of CO2 under Weyerhaeuser's forest. The facility that CF Industries is building won't be operational until 2029. However, once it is, Weyerhaeuser will have a long-term source of revenue that will cost the company relatively little. Weyerhaeuser will still continue to grow and harvest timber above the land. This agreement now lets Weyerhaeuser generate revenue from the underground area that it wasn't making any money from before. Advanced Micro Devices: Billions in Buybacks and Saudi Business [content-module:CompanyOverview|NASDAQ:AMD] Next up is chip stock Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD). AMD's overall value is under 10% of NVIDIA's (NASDAQ: NVDA). However, it is still NVIDIA's biggest competitor in the graphics processing unit market. These are the highly advanced chips used to train frontier AI models. AMD recently announced a substantial $6 billion share buyback program. A key point in this announcement is that this repurchase adds to the $4 billion the company had left from its last buyback plan. Overall, AMD now has $10 billion in share buyback capacity. This is equal to over 5% of the stock's market capitalization as of the May 16 close. The other huge piece of news was the deal AMD struck with Saudi Arabia. AMD announced a $10 billion deal with HUMAIN, a new AI company operated by the Saudi government, to supply AI computing technology. This comes as the Trump administration ended the AI Diffusion rule, clearing the path for U.S. chip companies to work with the country. This likely won't be the last agreement struck by AMD and countries that have had their AI ambitions limited by the AI Diffusion rule. Western Digital: Post-SanDisk Split, Buybacks, and Dividends Are Ramping Up [content-module:CompanyOverview|NASDAQ:WDC] Last up is Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC). The company is among the leaders in the hard disk drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) market. This hardware stores information like electronic documents and program files on a personal computer. This also extends to storing information in cloud data centers, which accounted for 87% of its total revenue last quarter and saw growth of 38%. Western Digital announced a $2 billion share buyback program. This is equal to a very large 11% of the company's market cap, highlighting the confidence the firm has in the future of its business. AI is set to increase data generation, which will create significant demand for the company's products going forward. Note that the large drop in revenues last quarter is due to the firm's separation from SanDisk and is not indicative of underlying weakness. In other big news, the company also announced it will begin paying a quarterly dividend. This will be the first time the firm has done so since 2020. Right off the bat, Western Digital has a notable dividend yield of around 0.8%. The company is now returning capital in two ways, a big benefit to shareholders. More Than Just Buybacks: A Broader Investment Thesis While billion-dollar buybacks grab headlines, the bigger picture for Weyerhaeuser, AMD, and Western Digital is their forward-looking strategies. Each company is leveraging unique partnerships, expanding into key growth areas, or re-engaging shareholders through dividends. For investors, these moves suggest real depth behind the capital returns and a reason to watch these stocks beyond the next quarter. Before you make your next trade, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. 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