Irish Forestry Funds

Frogdog

Are these funds still in existence? I thought they were, but from a quick search I see that they only went up to seven:

http://www.irish-forestry.ie/irish-forestry-funds.html

Is there anyone here invested in these still, or were at one point? How did they do?

They seem to have Forestry Investment Plans and Forestry Growth Plans also:

http://www.irish-forestry.ie/investment-plans.html

http://www.irish-forestry.ie/forestry-investment-aamp-growth-plans.html

Are they of any use?

I was considering registering for the "shares for sale" option if they were worthwhile:

http://www.irish-forestry.ie/shares-available.html

Phoebas

There is a thread over on AAM about this. Apparently some of the funds that were due to have matured over the last two years haven't paid out because they can't find buyers for semi mature forestry.

lucky john

As someone who has invested in my own private forest (20 acres planted 8 years ago) I was interested in this fund a couple of years ago. I did a lot of research at the time and ended up totally againt the idea. The main reasons were 1... absolutely no liquidity. If you decided to sell your shares it could take years to find a buyer if you could at all. 2... the return over the first years was almost 0. 3.. from my own experience I knew how important land quality was to tree growth. You get no guarantees with the fund. Maturity and clear fell could stretch from 35 years to 55years and there was a possibility that would be your only way out. As someone said above, selling semi mature forest is difficult and definitely unprofitable.

If the investment is for your pension fund you are way better off (imo) researching buying and planting your land. That venture would 100% depend on you qualifying for state plantings grants and premiums.