Latest News

• INVESTMENT BY AGRI-VIE
• 23/8/2009

Mauritius based Agri-Vie, a pan-Africa agri-business fund, yesterday completed a $6.7-million investment in New Forests Company (NFC), a forestry and timber products group with operations in Uganda as well as Tanzania, Rwanda and Mozambique.

The Agrie-Vie investment is the first institutional investment in the New Forest’s Holding company and Agrie-Vie joins other distinquished international institutions to have invested in the group including HSBC, European Investment Bank (EIB) and East African Development Bank (EADB).

In keeping with its aim of making long-term investments in order to realise their full potential, Agri-Vie plans to maintain its exposure to NFC for the medium to longer term and expects very attractive returns from its investment.

Commenting on its investment in NFC, ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Avril Stassen, executive at Agri-Vie, says the fund has a very positive outlook on the forestry industry in East Africa. “With the current energy infrastructure drive taking place across East Africa and a timber supply deficit that is only expected to get worse, we foresee a boom phase for the next decade in timber products.”

East Africa has so far been a net importer of sawn timber and electrical poles and NFC aims to replace these imports with locally-produced goods. With more than 20 000ha of forestry land in Uganda, NFC is one of the biggest tree planters in the region and has already planted 7 000ha of pine and eucalyptus