The Long-Term Capital-Market Performance of the Forestry Sector: An Investors’ Perspective

Abstract

High risk-adjusted returns, low correlation with financial asset classes and inflation hedging are investment characteristics that make forests a desirable investment opportunity. To examine returns on forestry investments (from 2011 to 2020), we focused solely on 48 forest companies (across the globe) that were listed on stock exchanges. Results indicate the economic justification of investing in publicly traded forestry companies. The positive five-year beta coefficients (β) range from 0.21 to 3.46, amounting to 1.15 on average. Taking the last 10-year comparison of the world’s most common capital market benchmarks, the highest return was achieved by the S&P500 (13.8% on average) followed by forestry companies (9.1%), U.S. Treasury bonds (4.4%), and gold (3.0%). Forestry companies, along with their associated business activities (sawmilling, final products production, and paper production), show the best historical performance from an investor’s point of view (total return of 13.2%).