Dec 06, 2014. /Lesprom Network/. Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) is now the majority shareholder of the assets of Kaingaroa Timberlands. The board is one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers, with over C$93 billion of assets under management at 31 March 2014. Their mandate is to invest funds for the pension plans of the Canadian Public Service, the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Reserve Force, as the company said in the press release received by Lesprom Network.

The investment board completed the purchase of the remainder of the share parcel in Kaingaroa Timberlands from Harvard Management Company in late November. PSP Investments now owns 58.75% of the assets with the New Zealand Superannuation Fund holding 38,75% and Kokano Investment Partnership owning 2.5%.

The 189,000 hectare Kaingaroa Forest on the Volcanic Plateau of New Zealand’s central North Island makes up the bulk of Kaingaroa Timberlands’ assets. Other assets include a log processing plant at Kaingaroa, a log yard at Murupara and a nursery at Te Ngae, Rotorua.

No details were available on the purchase price. However in 2012 the NZ Super Fund valued its (then) 40% share at $954 million. In 2004 Harvard beat China's Citic (China International Trust and Investment Corporation) to buy the Kaingaroa assets and cutting rights from receivership in 2004. No price was disclosed at the time but it was estimated to be over $600 million.