The Molpus Woodlands Group acquires more than 41,400 acres and closes its first jointly managed timberland investment fund

The Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC (MWG), a timberland investment management organization headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, and its partners, Molpus Woodlands Advisors and Salient Partners, L.P. (Houston, Texas), have announced the closing of its first jointly managed timberland investment fund. The fund was closed at $149 million and has placed over 90% of investors’ capital to work in managed timberlands in Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas. The fund is made up of U.S. and international investors including corporate and public retirement systems, university endowments, foundations and private investors.

The latest acquisition for the fund includes a total of 41,400+/- acres of timberland located in Ashley County, Arkansas and Morehouse and Union Parishes, Louisiana, with the southernmost tract situated twenty miles north of Monroe, Louisiana. This acquisition provides geographic diversity with lands in northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas and species diversity by adding substantial hardwood growth from this area to the pine softwood plantations in Alabama.

Molpus acquired the property on behalf of the timberland fund. MWG, Molpus Woodlands Advisors and Salient Partners, L.P. serve as general partners of the fund. MWG’s management division, Molpus Timberlands Management (MTM), will manage the property.

This purchase increases the Molpus Woodlands Group’s current acreage under management for clients to a total of 528,300 +/- acres in the mid-South from Texas to Alabama. Molpus recently sold over 500,000 acres of managed lands to allow its clients to capture and realize significant investment gains.

“Timberlands have historically provided respectable returns with low volatility and risks; we expect the same from this purchase and other properties purchased for the fund,” said Molpus Woodlands Group President, Dick Molpus. “When timberland investments are added to traditional portfolios held by institutional or private investors, it improves the risk/return characteristics making the portfolios better balanced and less vulnerable in market fluctuations,” he added.

The Molpus Company, an affiliated company of MWG, has been actively involved in the timber business since 1905 and specifically in the timberland investment management business since 1996. MWG and its sister operating companies employ 70 people in their eight offices located in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.