Irish Forestry.

NUTLEY BOY

I think that the thirteenth Irish Forestry Plan must be due out sometime soon.

Anybody have any views on how good an investment this might be ?

dunkamania

I looked at it briefly a while ago,if memory serves,I was amazed at how low the returns were,less than 3% a year,I think.
Returns are tax free though

ronbyrne2005

i thought returns were a lot more than 3% .check out the website for historical returns.

dunkamania

http://www.irish-forestry.ie/forestry_investment_domestic_iff_overview.htm

My understanding of it is that the projected rates of return are cumulative figures,so the funds are increasing by less than 3% per year.
I had a look at some of the accounts,and this appears to be the case.


I am open to correction on this

ronbyrne2005

the returns were closer to ten percent from what i heard on askaboutmoney.com .

dunkamania

Follow the link

http://www.irish-forestry.ie/forestr...f_overview.htm

and have a look at the accounts,none of the funds on this page have returned
an annualised return of greater than 2.5% over the last two years.

ronbyrne2005

they make the profits as the end when the timber is sold

dunkamania

That makes a lot more sense:)

RainyDay

ronbyrne2005 wrote:

the returns were closer to ten percent from what i heard on askaboutmoney.com .

Whereabouts on AAM did you read this, Ron?

To get back to the original question, I was greatly disturbed that the fund employs a seperate company (which just happens to have the same directors as the fund) to carry out the maintenance on the forests at a fixed fee. This seems like a dangerous conflict of interest to me. All returns quoted in their ads are PROJECTED returns, and there is no guarantee at all as to what money you'll end up with when the fund is liquidated.

dunkamania

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=6699&highlight=forest

The general opinion seems to be very negative on the Forestry funds

thegills

I bought shares in the 3rd Forestry fund about 6 years ago. At the time they projected an annual growth of 9% as all lending institutions did then. Now 13 funds later they know what the actual growth rates are (<3%) but they still predict an annual growth rate of 9%. Maybe it's an admin thing and that they only have to change the fund number in the brochures!!
You can actually buy shares on the website and you can see what each of the shares are worth.
thegills

RainyDay

thegills wrote:

Now 13 funds later they know what the actual growth rates are (<3%) but they still predict an annual growth rate of 9%. Maybe it's an admin thing and that they only have to change the fund number in the brochures!!

The projected growth rate is just that - a projection. The selling of these forestry funds is effectively unregulated, so there are no restrictions on what projections they show in the adverts (unlike unit linked funds for example, where all sales documentation must show a standard projected growth rate of 6%. The projected growth rate is a meaningless figure.

thegills wrote:

You can actually buy shares on the website and you can see what each of the shares are worth.

Are you sure about this? This page from their site shows the share units for sale, but doesn't show any prices.