Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – BNP Paribas Asset Management has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Copenhagen-based International Woodland Company (IWC), which specializes in timberland and agricultural investments. The acquisition is part of BNPP AM’s efforts to broaden its private markets investment platform to meet increasing investor demand for sustainable private investment strategies.
The Danish natural resources specialist has more than 30 years of experience in providing investment management and advisory services within timberland investments, agriculture investments, and ecosystems services such as carbon credit and conservation projects. IWC oversees €5.5 billion of timberland investment programs globally. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023 and is subject to regulatory approval by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority.
“Forestry, agriculture, and related natural capital strategies have attractive risk-return profiles and are important aspects of mitigating climate change and achieving net zero,” BNP Paribas Asset Management writes in an announcement. “Private finance clearly has a role to play in addressing the challenges of increasing and protecting natural capital, as well as appealing to institutional investors looking to diversify into uncorrelated assets that can offer an inflation hedge and enhanced risk-adjusted returns.”
“Forestry, agriculture, and related natural capital strategies have attractive risk-return profiles and are important aspects of mitigating climate change and achieving net zero.”
“We are seeing growing interest from our clients for investing in forestry as an asset class,” comments David Vaillant, Executive Committee Member at BNPP AM. “Via IWC we are very pleased to be able to offer them an enhanced range of sustainable solutions that complement our existing private markets capabilities and contribute to reducing the net zero financing gap while enabling a just transition for nature.” Otto Reventlow, CEO of IWC, and his team “welcome BNP Paribas Asset Management’s investment in IWC and look forward to partnering with them to grow the nature-based solutions universe together.”
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
