Invest in Forest conference to gather 150 decision makers in Riga

WhatWood News & Analytics will be the media partner of the 2nd Invest in Forest conference to be held on May 15-16, 2013, in Riga.

The 2nd international conference INVEST IN FOREST will gather 150 decision makers and industry practitioners from Europe, USA and New Zealand. The two-day conference will start with keynote presentation of the former Prime Minister of Sweden and Chairman of the Board of Sveaskog Goran Persson on the European forestry perspective. The competitiveness analysis of the Baltic and Nordic countries will be presented by Nordea Bank. Hakan Ekstrom from World Resources International (USA) will continue with a broad global timber markets overview, answering the key question – Is trade of wood raw-material likely to reach an all-time high in the next few years?

While wood raw material shortage is expected globally Nordic markets face different challenges. “The weak European construction business compared with a strong Swedish currency is a big challenge for the Swedish timber business. We will see a continuing strong need for structural rationalizations which have and will put pressure on Swedish timber prices. On the other hand, financial markets demand for safer investments and acceptance of lower rates of return make investment in forest and agricultural land more attractive. Expectations for higher inflation in the long run will also strengthen the demand for real investments” says Karl Danielson, founder of Areal, forestland investment mediation company in Sweden.

Two important studies will be presented to the public for the first time at INVEST IN FOREST conference: “Study on the Wood Raw material Supply and Demand for the EU Wood-processing Industries, Europe (2012-2013)” by Anders Portin, INDUFOR, Finland and “The International Timberland Ownership and Investment Review 2012” by Dennis Neilson, DANA, New Zealand.

The Conference will also address timberland attractiveness as real asset class, primarily focusing on forest as well as agriculture.
“Timberland investments have drawn increased interest from European institutional investors. While large direct investments are attractive to some, structured products broaden the market by providing diversification and attractive risk profile at achievable scale,” argues Emmanuel Steinbeis, portfolio manager, Focus Global Forest Fund, Catella Real Estate AG KAG, Germany

Speakers snapshot

Goran Persson, former Finance and Prime Minister of Sweden, Chairman of the Board of Sveaskog, member of the Board of World Resources Institute: “Forestry – a European perspective”

Andris Strazds, Senior Economist of Nordea Bank and SSE Riga faculty member, Latvia: “Demand drivers in the global economy. Competitive advantages of the Nordic and Baltic economies”

Hakan Ekstrom, President, Wood Resources International LLC, Seattle, USA: “Global timber markets overview: log price trends and outlook”

Dennis Neilson, Owner DANA Ltd, New Zealand: “The International Timberland Ownership and Investment Review. Plus additional focus on growing resource demand markets”

Riitta M Vaisanen, Sales Manager Northern Forestry, UPM-Kymmene Corporation, Finland: “Finland’s practice of selling forest estates with full forestry service”

Mark McAndrew, Partner and Head of Estate and Farm Sales, Strutt& Parker, UK: “Investing in UK farmland – why and how?”

Felix Karthaus, Managing Director, HD FestForest, UK: “Baltic investment journey 2000-2012”

Dr. Antti Makinen, CTO of Simosol Inc, Finland: “Adding value to timberland investments with decision support tools – IPTIM.

Lars Winter, CEO, Domsjö Fabriker AB, Sweden (part of the Indian Aditya Birla Group): ”The innovative Biorefinery makes more from the tree.”

Dr Thomas Lindeborg, Owner of Nordic and Baltic Property Group, Sweden: “From valuation to real value of forestland in the Baltic Sea region.

Jeff Wikle, MAI, TerraSource Valuation LLC, USA: “The difference between valuing timberland in mature versus immature markets”

Michael von der Tann, Member of the Board of German Forest Owners association (AGDW):“ German forest market from private owner’s perspective.”

Joakim Helenius, Founder and Executive Chairman of Trigon Capital, Estonia: “How does agricultural land compare to forestland as a real asset investment opportunity in the former Soviet Union?”

Hugh Coghill, Director of International Land Markets, Savills, UK: “Why international farmland is becoming an increasingly sought after investment?”

Among 150 Conference participants there will be Harvard Management Company, USA; UPM-Kymmene Corporation, Finland; Tornator Oy, Finland; TIMBEX, Lithuania; Aphaia Real Estate & Corporate Finance, Germany; Savills – one of the world’s largest real estate firms, UK; HD Fest Forest, UK; Domsjö Fabriker AB, part of the Aditya Birla Group, Fortune 500, Sweden/ India; Bergvik Skog / Stora Enso Sweden/Latvia; Handelsbanken Sweden/Latvia; Infidar Vermogensberatung AG, Switzerland; Graanul Invest AS, Estonia; Ambient Sound Investment, Estonia; IFS Asset Managers, Ireland, and many others.
See the full list of participants in www.investforest.com.

The Conference is organized by InvestForest in close cooperation with Areal– private forestland investment mediation company in Sweden, and Catella Corporate Finance –a leading investment banking firm providing a wide range of general and property-relatedadvisory services.

Conference contributing partners are The Stockholm School of Economics in Riga – ranked ♯20 in Europe by the Financial Times – and Embassy of Sweden in Riga.

Anders Wall Foundation is a sponsor with a support to SSE-Riga for the Conference with 10 000 EUR for training and remunerating of SSE-Riga students working as client consultants for the Conference.

Glimstedt and Partners Law firm and IPTIM – forest inventory data management system – are Gold sponsors of the Conference.

The 1st conference INVEST IN FOREST was a highly appreciated event held in April 2012, with 150 participants from 15 countries representing at least 50% of all real asset holders in the Baltics and the Nordic region in Europe.

Contact:
Inese Antonevica
Organizer of INVEST IN FOREST 2013
Phone: +371 29295419 www.investforest.com

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