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The Buddha tells the private equity fund he can fulfill one of its wishes. A managing director asks, “could you simplify the tax code?” Seeing the Buddha frown in silence, the person suggests another wish, “could you make our cellulosic more…
People who cite a rising stock market as evidence of economic health (1) make me nervous and (2) remind me what Timber REIT said to Timberland as they walked out of the gym: “You’re such a hard asset.” Roiled and more…
In 2011, timberland-owning REITs, as a sector, outperformed the S&P 500. As measured by the Forisk Timber REIT (FTR) Index, publicly-traded timber REITs returned 5.69% versus 0.00% for the S&P (see tables). The FTR Total Returns Index, which accounts for more…
Executive Summary: all timberland investment vehicles exceed US Treasury benchmarks over long time frames; timber REIT dividend distributions enhance yields to help offset short term share price volatility. U.S. Treasuries remain a common benchmark for private timberland investments. Why? Relative more…
This month I met with the Lt. Governor of a state with a substantive forest industry. The discussion centered on ways to support forest owners, wood markets and job creating projects. Then the conversation turned to the potential of wood-based more…
Years ago, I held shares in Crown Pacific Partners, a timberland-owning firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon. During market declines in the late 1990s, the firm subsidized its shareholder distributions through borrowing and cash generated from non-organic business activities. In other more…
The “80/20 rule” – also called the “Pareto principle” for Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto – posits that approximately 80% of your results or effects derive from 20% of the causes. Look around and examples materialize. 80% of your revenue more…
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on the rush of investors buying into publicly-traded real estate investment trusts (“Real-estate investors target neighborhood that is looking up,” Wall Street Journal, 11/15/11). According to Citigroup Global Markets, investors, year-to-date, invested 18% more…
When tracking wood demand and timber markets, we look not only to the past and to the future for guidance, but also to the side – peripherally – to gauge performance across markets and sectors. Heather Clark, our Customer Relations more…
As of October 30, 2011, Wood Bioenergy US includes 471 wood-consuming, announced and operating bioenergy projects in the continental US. In total, these projects represent potential, incremental wood use of 135.9 million green tons/year by 2021. Based on Forisk analysis, projects representing more…