Stafford Announces Final Close of Timberland Fund (“SIT VII”)

May, 2015

Stafford today announced a final close on Stafford International Timberland VII Fund (“SIT VII”) of US$484m from investors in the UK, Europe and Australia. The final close exceeded the target fund size of US$400m.

SIT VII is a specialist timberland fund of funds acquiring secondary positions in existing timberland funds, and investing in primary timberland funds and co-investments.

Angus Whiteley, Stafford’s Group CEO said: “We are very pleased with the support we continue to receive from existing investors and grateful for the confidence new investors have given us. To assist in the investment of this latest fund we have increased our investment team with the addition of two investment managers and a further analyst to support the finance function, as well as plans to open an office in Latin America in the third quarter of this year.”

SIT VII has already made two secondary investments, one co-investment and a primary commitment, all with leading timberland investment managers, and with a further co-investment and primary commitment made recently will have committed close to 21% of committed capital.