LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Infrastructure and private equity manager Foresight Group announced on Friday that Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company (FSF) has successfully completed its placing and offer for subscription.
The company said that within eight months of listing, FSF fully deployed its £130m initial public offering proceeds, and returned to the market to raise a further £45m, issuing an additional 42,076,054 new shares at a price of 107p in the process.

It said FSF would use the proceeds to acquire further properties within its imminent pipeline of forestry and afforestation assets, increasing its reach and impact.

FSF had constructed a "diverse portfolio" of 40 properties covering 8,658 hectares across Scotland, England and Wales.

Within its current portfolio, 38% were afforestation sites by value.

Foresight said that asset type provides "significant" value creation opportunities, alongside exposure to the real returns and capital appreciation benefits of UK timber and land markets.

As at 31 March, FSF had delivered a "very strong" total net asset value return of 4.2%, largely due to an upward revaluation of its afforestation sites as a result of rising land prices, the granting of planning permissions, and the completion of planting programmes.

"The full deployment and successful subsequent raise for FSF, well within its first year of operations, represent a significant endorsement of Foresight Group's innovative approach to launch this fund as the first UK natural capital focused investment trust on the main market of the London Stock Exchange," said group executive chairman Bernard Fairman.

"This approach delivers a scalable platform to raise retail and multi-asset capital for a fund with exceptional environmental, social and governance (ESG) and biodiversity credentials."

At 1221 BST, shares in Foresight Group Holdings were up 1.25% at 379.68p, while those in Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company were flat at 107p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.

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