London, UK – 27 January 2025: Foresight Group (“Foresight”), a leading investor in global infrastructure, natural capital and growing UK companies, raises a further £27m of fresh equity capital for Foresight Natural Capital Ltd (“FNC”) from East Riding and West Yorkshire pension funds, which will be used to grow and diversify the investment pipeline. This latest subscription has doubled the backing by the two institutional pension funds for Foresight’s existing UK-focused strategy. The new investment brings the total net asset value (“NAV”) of Foresight’s UK natural capital strategy, which includes FNC, to £0.3bn. Foresight has been active in natural capital since 2019 and, to date, has transacted on over 80 properties in the sector.

 

FNC’s portfolio mostly consists of afforestation (the planting of trees for new woodland creation) and established forestry assets. However, as part of the raise the strategy is also now able to explore other natural capital opportunities such as Biodiversity Net Gain (“BNG”) projects, peatland restoration and opportunities focused on regenerative agriculture.

 

FNC intends to primarily use the capital raised for afforestation development opportunities and already completed a £5m afforestation investment in South Scotland in January to get deployment rapidly underway with strong deal pipeline beyond that. There is also the possibility of deploying into English BNG projects. Once the capital from the January equity raise has been substantially committed and/or deployed into the deal pipeline, the strategy will look for further opportunities to grow later in 2025.

 

Robert Guest, Managing Director, Foresight Group commented: “We are very pleased to receive these further commitments from our long-standing pension fund investors. It demonstrates that they remain committed to the advancement of our UK platform and see the value that natural capital can generate, not just in terms of returns but for society as a whole. It is great to see this continued demand from institutional investors as we look forward to leveraging our deep sector experience for our forthcoming European natural capital strategy.”

 

Richard Kelly, Managing Director, Foresight Group added: “The science is clear; there is no credible pathway to avoiding a global climate and biodiversity catastrophe without nature-based solutions. The additional commitment from these high-calibre institutional investors directly contributes towards achieving a nature positive net zero future and we’re delighted to work with such excellent partners who share our ambition to deliver further growth and impact. We see local government pension schemes and the regional pension fund ‘Pools’ as key instigators for nature-based solutions.”

 

FNC makes a direct contribution to the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss through its forestry and afforestation carbon sequestration initiatives, as part of an equitable land-use transition. Its assets cover a 13,245-hectare gross area. 5,622-hectares is standing forest area, that will produce 1.3 million tonnes of sustainable timber over the next rotation. 5,819-hectares is committed to afforestation. Once fully planted, FNC’s afforestation portfolio will be equivalent to around 28% of the total land in the UK that was used for afforestation in the year to March 2024.

 

Darran Ward, Head of Alternatives at West Yorkshire Pension Fund commented: “We view nature as keystone infrastructure and an emerging asset class, producing long-term returns for our members aligned with our core investment beliefs, whilst providing critical ecosystem services essential for sustainable businesses and communities. We look forward to working with Foresight as active, engaged shareholders to expand the strategy, drive returns and deliver impact.”

 

Neil Berry, Investment Manager at East Riding Pension Fund added: “As a long term investor, we are pleased to continue developing our relationship with Foresight in delivering Natural Capital solutions for our members. We consider that investment in Natural Capital solutions provides suitable risk adjusted returns as well as climate change mitigation as part of an overall net zero ambition.”

 

Learn more about our natural capital strategy here.

 

-ENDS- 
 
For further information, please contact:

Weronika Slomka, H/Advisors Maitland
• Foresight@h-advisors.global
• +44 (0) 772 158 1427