April 18, 2023

Submitted by Richard Lane, Executive Director, Birdwood Capital

London-based sustainable real assets manager, Astarte Capital Partners, with the help of their corporate advisors at Birdwood, have again put Paraguay on the map with the runaway fundraising success of Astarte’s Paraguay-focused ‘SA Impact Forestry Fund.’ Also known as ‘SilviPar,’ the single asset fund has crossed the upper threshold of its initial US$150-$200 million target. Teresa Farmaki, Astarte’s managing principal and independently noted as one of the most influential women in global finance, remarked: 

“Building sustainable investment platforms that support the fight against climate change while at the same time achieve strong returns is the main focus of Astarte. Few investments are better in supporting the environment, local communities and fighting climate change, than new sustainable commercial forests. South America is one of the few regions globally that climate conditions are ideal for growing such forests and Paraguay is definitely the new frontier of impact forestry. We are really proud that we have identified Paraguay’s great potential early enough.”

Birdwood and Birdwood’s co-founding partner, Goldman Sachs alum, Richard Lampe, commented similarly from Paraguay:

“It is heartwarming and personally fulfilling to see Paraguay’s burgeoning sustainable forestry/carbon industry receiving the spotlight it deserves. When we first began, institutional investors often had difficulty finding Paraguay on a map, but with the success of Astarte’s milestone SilviPar project, which has seen the first significant foreign institutional capital (northern hemisphere and Australian pension funds, among others) enter a Paraguay-focused fund, the phones have started to ring…we also hold the view that the Paraguayan sovereign will reach the hallowed ‘Investment Grade’ status in the near-term and Birdwood are happy to be well-positioned pre-emptively.”

SilviPar is led in Paraguay by one of the world’s top foresters, Martin Forsen. Forsen, who was awarded the Golden Twig award by King Gustaf of Sweden for his valuable contributions to forestry and sustainability, has overseen the planting of the equivalent of 15,000 new soccer (football) stadiums of Paraguayan forest since last 2022. The project’s significant scale, combined with industry-leading rates of production that enhance carbon sequestration rates, will result in a major carbon project. 

Forsen also noted that SilviPar is creating jobs where they are needed most, in rural areas in Paraguay, with the SilviPar forestry operations generating approximately 15x the amount of jobs compared to previous land use.

SilviPar’s world-class forestry operation in Itapua state, south-eastern Paraguay.

Paraguay itself continues its positive forward trajectory in typical quiet and efficient fashion, culminating in an outlook upgrade from Moody’s (stable to positive) in July 2022.

Birdwood, illustrating the geography of Paraguay and the associated opportunity set within real assets.

The Economist magazine touts a new in-country motorway that could eventually rival the Panama Canal, and a new multi-billion dollar bio-refinery, noted to be the largest private investment in Paraguay’s history, is backed by one of the pre-eminent bulge bracket investment banks, among other high-profile northern hemisphere institutional investors.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Lane, executive director of Birdwood, is a former investment banker at JP Morgan in London. Since moving to South America in 2014 he has been involved in a number of startup and corporate finance projects. He has been with Birdwood, a corporate finance boutique principally focused on Paraguay and agri deals, since 2020.

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