RMS plans $900 million timberland capital raise – exclusive

Resource Management Services, the US-based institutional fund manager, will raise the capital across two funds; one targeting international markets and another targeting the US forestry market.

Resource Management Services (RMS), the global timberland fund manager, will start fundraising for up to $900 million in institutional investor commitments across two funds in January.

The fund manager, close to fully deploying its latest funds, will target $450 million to $500 million for an internationally-focused fund and between $200 million and $400 million for the US-focused fund.

This will be the second international fund and fifth US fund respectively RMS has raised, according to Ed Sweeten, executive vice president, acquisitions and land sales.

RMS would not disclose the size of all its previous funds but manages over $4.5 billion of timberland in total on behalf of clients. Its largest fund, a $3 billion vehicle that closed in 2006, recently sold over 200,000 acres of timberland to Potlatch Corp, a NASDAQ-listed real estate investment trust.