Investment house AXA IM has taken control of 24,000 hectares of pine plantations straddling the border between Victoria and South Australia in a deal of around $775 million with US fund manager Global Forest Partners, the biggest timber transaction in the country for more than a decade. The acquisition is the first investment in Australian forestry for AXA IM, which manages almost 60,000 hectares of plantations across France, Ireland and Finland. The deal illustrates AXA’s appetite for sustainability-themed investments as institutional investors worldwide align their portfolios to climate change issues. …The mixed-age plantations… allow for continuous harvesting and replanting as well as supply of saw-logs to the market, ultimately providing a steadier cash flow. …The transaction, understood to be worth around $775 million, is the biggest in the timber industry since 2012.