Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
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Stafford Capital Partners launches a $1.2 billion timber fund, consolidating assets from three funds, with a target yield of 8% and strong institutional support.
By Simon Jessop
LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Investor Stafford Capital Partners has consolidated assets from three timber funds into a new $1.2 billion fund, retaining nearly three-quarters of existing investors amid strong institutional demand for the assets.
The Stafford International Timberland Continuation Fund will operate as a perpetual fund and include 74 assets from across Stafford International Timberland (SIT) funds VI, VII and VIII, it said in a statement.
Continuation funds allow managers to keep assets beyond the original fund's life - typically to maintain exposure to strong performers or avoid selling at unfavourable prices.
About 73% of SIT investors rolled over their investment, with fresh capital accounting for 27%. The biggest backer is a group of UK Local Government Pension Funds, which collectively make up 54% of the fund.
"The establishment of the Continuation Fund follows closely behind our $1 billion close of SIT X, our tenth core timberland fund," said Stafford Chief Executive Angus Whiteley, referring to the March fundraising.
"We believe this further signals the growing momentum and institutional interest in timberland as a strategic asset class."
The fund's assets, built up between 2011 and 2018, cover 6.3 million acres of commercial timberland from across the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Latin America, the firm said.
It plans no new acquisitions to the fund and instead will gradually sell down about 28% of the fund, aiming to generate a cash yield of more than 8% over the next decade.
(Reporting by Simon Jessop;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
A timber fund is an investment vehicle that pools capital to invest in timberland and forestry-related assets, aiming to generate returns through timber sales and land appreciation.
A perpetual fund is an investment fund that does not have a fixed termination date, allowing it to hold assets indefinitely and manage them for long-term growth.
Institutional demand refers to the interest and purchasing power of large organizations, such as pension funds and insurance companies, which invest significant capital in various asset classes.
Cash yield is the income generated from an investment expressed as a percentage of the investment's value, often used to assess the profitability of income-generating assets.
Timberland assets are parcels of land that are primarily used for growing and harvesting timber, which can provide returns through timber sales and land appreciation.
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