Nature Wood Group Limited

General Information
Business:

We are a holding company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

We are a global leading vertically integrated forestry company headquartered in Macau, a Special Administrative Region (S.A.R.) of China. We focus on FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) business operations. Our operations cover both up-stream forest management and harvesting, and down-stream wood-processing and distribution. We offer a broad line of products, including logs, decking, flooring, sawn timber, recycled charcoal, synthesized charcoal, machine-made charcoal and essential oils, primarily through our sales network in Europe, South Asia, South America, North America and China. According to the Frost & Sullivan Report, we are (i) the second-largest wood products export supplier; (ii) the second-largest wood products export supplier certified by the FSC; and (iii) the largest decking product supplier in Peru, in terms of export value in 2021. We are also the largest oak export supplier and the second-largest hardwood export supplier in France, in terms of export volume in 2021.

Our Group owns concession rights of forests in Peru which covered an area of approximately 615,333 hectares as of March 17, 2023. As of March 17, 2023, approximately 13.67% and 1.66% of our Forests are covered by Cumaru and Estoraque, respectively. Cumaru and Estoraque are valuable hardwood timber which produce strong and durable wood that are well suited for high value markets. In particular, Cumaru is commonly used for producing flooring, decking and other construction materials, while Estoraque is commonly used for producing flooring and furniture.

To ensure the sustainability of our forest resources, we establish a set of harvesting rules and operating standards. For instance, we typically only harvest timber meeting the minimum stem circumference requirements. Our standard of forestry operations was recognized by the FSC, an independent accreditation body that is dedicated to promoting responsible and sustainable forest management.

According to the Frost & Sullivan Report, we are one of the few forestry companies that have successfully implemented FSC-certified operations, including forest management, harvesting and manufacturing of wood products. We commenced our FSC business operations in 2016, when Grupo Maderero Amaz S.A.C., a subsidiary of our Group, first obtained FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certification and began to sell FSC-certified products. As at the date of this prospectus, five subsidiaries of our Group (including Choi Chon Investment Company Limited, E&T Forestal S.A.C., Grupo Maderero Amaz S.A.C., Nuevo San Martin S.A.C. and Latinoamerican Forest S.A.C) have obtained FSC CoC certifications. We also have built a professional forest management team to implement FSC forest management. Our forest management team is led by our head of forest engineer who is qualified to carry out FSC forest management and the key members of our team have an average of over 8 years of experience in FSC forest management. According to the Frost & Sullivan Report, FSC-certified products can be sold at a premium of around 5% to 15% over non-FSC-certified products.

With the growing public concern about environmental protection, consumers are more willing to pay a premium to buy “green” products that are certified by reputable accreditation bodies or ecolabel organizations. As such, products certified by the FSC, one of the world’s most trusted accreditation body, have received wide acceptance across the world, especially the United States and Europe. Revenue generated from sales of FSC-certified products increased by 162.8% from approximately $3.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to approximately $9.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, which further increased by 13.7% to approximately $11.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, which accounted for approximately 10.0%, 20.7% and 20.3% of our revenue of the respective periods. We believe that such growing trend will continue in the future.

Some of the logs we harvested will be sold to customers immediately after harvesting, others will be processed into a wide variety of products, such as decking and flooring, in our wood processing facilities. As at the date of this prospectus, our Group owns two facilities in Peru, and the Peru base has a monthly log-processing capacity of more than 6,000 m3 and a monthly export volume of up to 65 containers (approximately 1,560 m3).

 To further capture the benefit of vertical integration of our manufacturing operation and to secure a stable supply of our wood materials, we sourced logs and semi-finished air-dried planks from local forest owners in Peru, and flooring and decking through sourcing from Gabon. In addition, we source logs through timber auctions or local forest owners in France. To secure a stable supply of logs, our forest management team would assist forest owners in Peru and France with forest management and harvest planning. Similar to logs harvested from our Forests, logs we procured from third parties are either sold directly to customers or further processed in our processing facilities.

We perform the manufacturing process for certain of our products at our Peru base and outsource part of the manufacturing process to third party manufacturers in Peru. We also provide original design manufacturer (ODM) services by combining our in-house product design and development expertise with our ODM partners. For the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020, approximately 18.4%, 18.2% and 20.8% of our revenue from our products was generated from our ODM business respectively.

For the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020, we generated revenue of approximately $55.3 million, $47.7 million and $37.5 million, respectively. Revenue from sales of logs, flooring and decking and sawn timber accounted for 50.2%, 21.7%, 24.9% and 3.2% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2022 respectively, accounted for 44.4%, 25.0%, 25.2% and 5.4% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 respectively, and accounted for 43.9%, 34.4%, 17.5% and 4.2% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020 respectively.

(Nature Wood Group Limited downsized its micro-cap IPO at pricing on Sept. 11, 2023, to 0.75 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) – down from 0.92 million (915,000) ADS – and priced the IPO at $9.00 – the low end of its $9.00-to-$11.00 range – to raise $6.75 million.)

(Note: Nature Wood Group Limited filed an F-1/A dated Aug. 22, 2023, in which it removed Orientiert XYZ Securities as a joint book-runner – leaving Prime Number Capital in place as the sole book-runner. Nature Wood Group Limited disclosed terms for its IPO in an F-1/A filing dated Aug. 4, 2023: 915,000 American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $9.00 to $11.00 to raise $9.15 million. Each ADS represents eight ordinary shares. Nature Wood  Group Limited filed its F-1 on April 25, 2023.)

Industry: Forestry - Wood
Employees: 318
Founded: 2008
Contact Information
Address Avenida da Amizade no. 1287 Chong Fok Centro Comercial, 13 E Macau S.A.R,
Phone Number (+853) 2855-3594
Web Address http://www.nature-wood.com/
View Prospectus: Nature Wood Group Limited
Financial Information
Market Cap $125.17mil
Revenues $55.34 mil (last 12 months)
Net Income $4.78 mil (last 12 months)
IPO Profile
Symbol NWGL
Exchange NASDAQ
Shares (millions): 0.8
Price range $9.00 - $9.00
Est. $ Volume $6.8 mil
Manager / Joint Managers Prime Number Capital
CO-Managers
Expected To Trade: 9/12/2023
Status: Priced
Quiet Period Expiration Date:
Lock-Up Period Expiration Date:
SCOOP Rating
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