

The $14.2 billion Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund is looking for timber managers to help it fill out a 5 percent target allocation to timberland investments.
The fund has invested 1.1 percent of the portfolio, or $156 million since it started investing into the asset class in January 2012. It hires five asset management firms to handle its timber portfolio and recently increased the mandate size of Forest Investment Associates, the US-based firm, by $35 million to $135 million – currently just $81 million of this has been drawn down.
The firm is currently talking to other asset management firms and evaluating their offerings alongside its consultant Townsend. It plans to fill the allocation within the next five to six years, according to David Graham, a spokesperson for the fund.
Timber has its own separate allocation within the portfolio and OH&F does not invest into any other types of agriculture, according Graham.
OH&F has $47 million invested into a mandate Hancock Timber Resource Group, $11 million in the Global Forest Partners G10 Fund, $9.9 million in Brookfield Timberlands Fund V and $6.2 million in Brookfield Timber Fund II.
The fund invested into timberland to “further the diversification of our portfolio and maximize returns with an acceptable level of risk,” Graham told Agri Investor.