Gresham House Asset Management is launching a UK forestry fund for institutional, family office and professional investors.

The fund, which will focus on high-yielding spruce forests, has a Β£25m (€32.1m) target size.

The fund is seeking annual, unlevered net returns of 10%.

Gresham House said its forestry manager subsidiary Aitchesse would acquire a portfolio of five forests in west Scotland for Β£12.1m.

The deal is due to complete by July.

The portfolio is being sold by a property trust controlled by a UK pension scheme.

Rupert Robinson, managing director at Gresham House Asset Management, said: β€œThe opportunity to purchase such an attractive forestry asset as the cornerstone investment for the fund is particularly exciting.

β€œThe fund will be Gresham House’s first new collective investment vehicle investing in forestry, a growing asset class for institutional, family office and professional investors.”

Gresham House took over Aitchesse as part of a move into real assets , paying Β£7.7³Ύ.

With IPD’s UK Annual Forestry index outperforming equities and bonds over the last 20 years, Robinson last year said forestry offered investors a β€œunique combination of long-term, superior, risk-adjusted returns”.