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.