When former IFM Investors chief executive, Brett Himbury, joined Stafford Capital Partners as chairman last year, he did the equivalent of a mini-MBA in one of the few assets in the world not correlated with movements in equities: forestry.

Stafford, which was founded in Australia 22 years ago by Richard Bowley, Geoff Norman and Stephen White, has been a pioneer in timberland investment. It now has $US2.9 billion ($4.5 billion) of its total $US7.9 billion infrastructure portfolio in forestry.