"Thank you for addressing my multi-themed email in you commentary of yesterday. Your comments on stress were to the point and helpful! Patience and intelligence will find opportunity.

"BTW, I think Eoin might have been a bit misleading about the proportion of un-invested cash held by Phaunos. (But I may have not understood their latest notice to the London Stock Exchange.) Phaunos may therefore now represent an opportunity for some NAV narrowing. Or at least a low risk entry into a forestry investment as compared with buying a forest directly."

Eoin Treacy's view Thank you for this email which others may also find of interest. This page from Bloomberg indicates that as of June 30th the fund had a 42.5% weighting in Treasury Bills and the total of the other holdings did not add up to 100%. However as you point out, the interim results posted August 27th indicate that 85% of the assets have been deployed with the remainder held as working capital. The fund is also talking about beginning to pay a dividend which could help bolster investor interest.

This report kindly forwarded by Rory Gillen dated late January was posted in Comment of the Day on March 22nd and indicates that the fund was trading at a discount of 26%. It has since widened to 39% even following the almost full allocation of the available resources. Given the considerable recovery taking place in lumber prices and the long-term attractions of owning diversified timber assets, paying an attractive yield, the current discount is potentially attractive.

Phaunos' NAV has rallied to test the upper side of the two-year base and a sustained move below 70p would be required to question medium-term upside potential.