Finns buy 500 hectares of forest in Buzău

Autor: Ioana David 14.03.2011

Finnish group Tornator, which holds 12,000 hectares of forest in Romania, has bought a further 500 hectares in Buzău county, in the first major transaction involving forests this year.

"The transaction has been concluded recently," said Zoltan A. Kosy, country manager of Tornator's Romanian division.

He did not provide details on the value of the transaction, but one hectare of forest costs 3,000 euros on average, so the deal involving the over 500 hectares bought by Tornator in Buzău can be put at over 1.5 million euros.

The Finns started buying forests on the Romanian market in 2008 and in just one year ended up holding 12,000 hectares. In 2010 the company did not buy anything because they said they could not find suitable areas. One of the criteria they consider when making acquisitions is the area, which needs to be in excess of 500 hectares.

Tornator is one of the biggest foreign forest owners, alongside German investment fund Nordcapital and Austrian-held Holzindustrie Schweighofer. Foreign investors have come to own around 100,000 hectares of forest on the Romanian market, i.e. 1.5% of Romania's total forest area, according to ZF estimates based on data from market players.