United Bankers’ UB Forest Industry Green Growth Fund I LP (“UB FIGG” or “the Fund”) investing in sustainable and resource efficient forest and bio-based industries has raised Euro 100 million in investment commitments.
UB FIGG is a private equity fund investing in companies focused on plastic and other fossil fuel based material replacements, higher value and more efficient use of wood and agricultural raw material side streams and greater use of these raw materials across a wide range of intermediate and end uses. Through its investments, the Fund will help the forest and bio-based industries to create solutions to mitigate climate change. UB FIGG is a signatory of Operating Principles for Impact Management and reports on the environmental and climate impact of its investments.
The Fund has already developed a solid pipeline of potential initial investments, with the first investments expected to be made in early 2023.
The Fund’s geographic focus is Europe, in particular the Nordic region, where the greatest level of innovation is taking place. Finland is the world’s leading country in the technological development of the forest industry, which makes it natural that a fund with this strategy is being launched here.
The Fund’s investments will target forest and bio-product industrial companies in the growth phase, but also consider selected opportunities in industrial project co-investments and buyouts.
UB FIGG is a closed-end private equity fund for professional investors, with 10-year term and a target size of Euro 300 million. The fund’s target net return (IRR) is over 15%.
"We are very pleased to have raised United Bankers’ first industrial private equity fund. The Fund will complement United Bankers’ strong competence in forestry investing and aims to extend our product and service offerings in alternative investments. This Fund is our first spearhead product in private equity, and it has already achieved a great deal of interest among international investors”, says Timo Ronkainen, Head of Institutional Asset Management of United Bankers.
UB FIGG complements United Bankers’ fund selection focusing on real asset investments, which comprise real estate and forest funds as well as funds investing in shares of real estate and infrastructure companies. The Group’s assets under management amounted to approximately Euro 4.6 billion at the end of June 2022, 40% of which was invested in real asset investments.
