By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media
INVL Asset Management, one of the top asset management companies in Lithuania, has sold its INVL Baltic Forests Fund I portfolio consisting of 1,300 hectares of forests in the country of Lithuania for EUR 7.5 million (US$8.5 million).
The fund’s entire forest portfolio was owned by Šiluona UAB, which has been acquired by Latvian Forest Company AB, locking in a 27 percent average annual rate of return (IRR) for investors.
Founded in 1991 as part of the Invalda INVL group, INVL Asset Management has more than 28 years of experience in managing private equity assets and growing leaders across the Baltic and CEE regions. The group’s companies manage pension funds, mutual funds, private equity and alternative investments, as well as individual portfolios for a total AUM exceeding EUR1 billion (US$1.18 billion).
Originally launched in 2017, the INVL Baltic forests Fund I was the groups first fund to apply sustainable forestry management principles to the management of its assets. Through this vehicle, INVL invested in forests suitable for forestry activities in the Baltics, with a focus on Lithuania, where it intends to develop a sustainable forest market by creating a consolidated group of forest parcels in such a way to increase their value and potential returns.
“We successfully realized the fund’s ambitions and now its lifecycle of nearly five years is ending with a return that exceeds the target rate several times over,” said Sigita Bizulienė, manager, INVL Baltic Forests Fund I.
INVL has a strategic aim to continue creating long-term benefits for investors in the area of sustainable alternative investments by not only generating financial returns, but also meeting ever-growing environmental, social, and governance criteria. To accomplish this, the group stated that it will pursue this activity through its INVL Sustainable Timberland and Farmland Fund II (STAFF II) launched in November 2020.
Registered in Luxembourg and administered by Apex Group, one of Europe’s top funds services providers, STAFF II is intended for EU-based institutional and private investors has a targeted funding goal of EUR100 million (US$118 million) to back sustainably-managed agricultural land and forests in the Baltic Sea region and Central and Eastern Europe.
Vytautas Plunksnis, head of private equity at INVL Asset Management, noted last year that the fund will have a hard cap in place of EUR200 million (US$236 million), but added that as time advances, its investor composition may evolve as some investors exit and others buy in.
Martynas Samulionis, chairman of the INVL Baltic Forests Fund I investment committee, and managing partner of STAFF II, commented, “After this success selling the INVL Baltic Forests Fund I and the resulting impressive returns for our investors, we intend to become one of the leading and most investor-trusted funds in the European Union working with sustainable, alternative investments that not only create real long-term benefits for our investors but also protect nature for future generations. That is a fundamental part of the STAFF II investment philosophy.”
STAFF II made its first investment in December 2020, acquiring seven companies from ag business group Linas Agro Group for EUR13.6 million (US$16.45 million), and went on in June 2021 to successfully raise another EUR 18.5 million (US$22 million) to hold a second close at EUR 51 million (US$60.76 million).
At the time, Samulionis said, “Through this second offering, we have already exceeded half the fund’s initial target size of EUR 100 million. We have already successfully invested in the Lithuanian and Latvian market and with this new capital we will be able to expand our activities both in the Baltic regions and in Central and Eastern Europe.”
– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@