"Weyerhaeuser Buys Timberlands and Weighs Selling Its Home-Building Unit" (WY)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo have been fans of timberland investments for years but another asset class (emerging market equities) has moved into their #1 asset class  position with a 6.2% expected return vs. timberland at 5.9% whereas the expected returns had favored timber for most of the last six years.

From DealBook:

Weyerhaeuser said on Sunday that it planned to buy 645,000 acres of timberland for about $2.65 billion and added that it was weighing a sale or spinoff of its home-building unit.

It also announced the appointment of Doyle Simons as its new chief executive, succeeding Daniel S. Fulton, who will serve as executive vice chairman in August before retiring in October.

Weyerhaeuser is buying the acreage through its acquisition of Longview Timber from Brookfield Asset Management, gaining lands in Washington and Oregon. The deal will expand the company’s holdings in the Pacific Northwest by 33 percent, to 2.6 million acres, and increase its overall holdings in the United States to 6.6 million acres.

As part of the deal, Weyerhaeuser will raise its quarterly dividend to 22 cents a share, from 20 cents a share....MORE