NZ’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Is Growing Its US Forest Estate
Kaingaroa is the fund's single largest investment, and the Guardians have now committed $200 million to a US timberland account alongside it.
Rows of planted pine are the asset class the Guardians are buying into, with Domain Timber Advisors managing 270,000 acres across the United States at 31 March 2026. (Photo Credit: © Jillian Cain / Dreamstime.com)
New Zealand’s sovereign wealth fund has committed a further US$50 million to American timberland, bringing the total in a separately managed account it opened in 2023 to $200 million and pushing more of its forest money outside the country. That is according to Domain Timber Advisors, the Atlanta firm running the account for the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, which announced the additional commitment on Monday.
“DTA has been a valued partner in developing this portfolio,” Pete White said, with the Guardians’ portfolio manager for real assets describing the new money as support for “both selective additions to the portfolio and value-creation opportunities across the holdings”.
The Guardians hold 42 per cent of Kaingaroa Tipu in the central North Island, their single largest investment across a fund of 95 billion New Zealand dollars. Canada’s PSP Investments and the iwi collective Kakano Investments carry the balance, and Kakano’s members part-own the land on which the trees stand. Kaingaroa covers 178,000 hectares of planted forest, and Timberlands manages it to Forest Stewardship Council standards.
A mature radiata pine plantation in New Zealand, the forest type behind the Guardians’ single largest investment. Kaingaroa runs to 178,000 hectares of planted forest, held at 42 per cent alongside PSP Investments and the iwi collective Kakano Investments. (Photo Credit: ID 198514892 © Beautifulblossom | Dreamstime.com)
Domain Timber Advisors targets what it calls “non-industrial, fragmented or undermanaged timberland”, then buys neighbouring blocks and works the forest up until a holding is large enough to interest an institution. The registered investment adviser counts $866 million across 270,000 acres in the United States at 31 March 2026, and has run separate accounts and funds across 26 states since Domain Capital Group established it in 2016.
Timberland accounts for close to half of all US farm and forest land now in foreign hands. Brazil’s BTG Pactual pushed its own American estate beyond 1.7 million acres in June, buying 90,000 acres of pine and hardwood from the property group Jamestown.
Overseas buyers have put forestry ahead of every other sector for investment consents in New Zealand. A German insurance group and IKEA’s Ingka Investments both took blocks in the June decisions, and Ingka is pushing a 43,000-hectare New Zealand estate towards 100,000 hectares.
Håkan Ekström of Global Wood Trends and Glen O’Kelly of O’Kelly Acumen rank the US South as the region with the greatest potential to mobilise additional timber, in a four-part outlook published last month. The pair also name constrained timber production in New Zealand, Japan, and China as a source of rising pressure on regional markets and trade flows. They expect global softwood supply to grow only modestly through 2035, while demand rises faster, and log prices to come under upward pressure as well.
Timber-frame housing is the demand the timberland trade is priced against, and Ekström and O’Kelly expect softwood supply to grow only modestly through 2035 while demand rises faster. (Photo Credit: © Sculpies / Dreamstime.com)
“The original commitment allowed our teams to build the portfolio thoughtfully,” Don Warden said, with the managing director and co-head describing the 2023 money as the foundation for the work ahead.
Domain says that first $150 million is fully deployed, and the new capital is committed rather than placed.
John Capriotti, the firm’s other managing director and co-head, credits Scott Reaves and the wider team with assembling the holdings and identifying property-level opportunities across them. He expects the additional capital to go into “disciplined forestry and property improvements, aggregation opportunities and selective land-use initiatives”. Neither Domain nor the Guardians has named a single property the new money will reach.
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