Stafford Capital Partners has raised US$635m (€689m) for its 10th global timberland secondaries fund, according to a report seen by IPE Real Assets.
The company raised US$695m for the previous fund in 2021 and, in an update to investors, it said fundraising for Stafford International Timberland X had “considerable forward momentum” to reach its US$1bn target.
Like its predecessors, the fund will acquire secondary positions in existing timberland vehicles and make co-investments.
Launched in January 2023, it has already deployed more than US$160m of its capital. It reached a first close in March 2023 and is expected to hold a final close in the third quarter of 2024.
The investor update also said Stafford had raised US$945m in 2023 across secondaries and carbon strategies.
It said the fundraising was “illustrative of the growing net-zero aspirations of institutional investors globally”, citing mandates from a mix of institutional investors from the UK, US, Korea and Germany, including UK local government pension schemes.
Stafford Capital now has more than US$3.7bn in assets under management across more than 100 underlying assets. Its timberland fund portfolio currently stores more than 316.8 MtCO2e of carbon and sequesters 16.6 MtCO2e of carbon each year.
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