BNP AM

The sustainable investor for a changing world

Multi factor investing

BNP Paribas Asset Management announces the acquisition of a majority stake in leading Danish natural resources specialist International Woodland Company (‘IWC’).  IWC is headquartered in Copenhagen and has more than 30 years’ experience in providing investment management and advisory services within sustainable timberland investments, agriculture investments and ecosystems services, including carbon credits and conservation projects.  It oversees EUR 5.5 billion of timberland investment programmes globally.  The transaction is expected to close in H1 2023 and is subject to regulatory approval by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority.

David Vaillant, BNPP AM Executive Committee Member, comments:

“Our investment in IWC is fully aligned with our commitment to be a leading sustainable asset manager, be forward looking on sustainability-related topics with our clients and increase our focus on sustainable investment strategies, especially within private markets.  It is a key component of our Net Zero and Biodiversity roadmaps, as well as being aligned with broader BNP Paribas Group initiatives to protect and restore forests and biodiversity, such as Zero Net Deforestation or Act4nature.  We are seeing growing interest from our clients for investing in forestry as an asset class, and 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.”

Disclaimer

Please note that articles may contain technical language. For this reason, they may not be suitable for readers without professional investment experience. Any views expressed here are those of the author as of the date of publication, are based on available information, and are subject to change without notice. Individual portfolio management teams may hold different views and may take different investment decisions for different clients. This document does not constitute investment advice. The value of investments and the income they generate may go down as well as up and it is possible that investors will not recover their initial outlay. Past performance is no guarantee for future returns. Investing in emerging markets, or specialised or restricted sectors is likely to be subject to a higher-than-average volatility due to a high degree of concentration, greater uncertainty because less information is available, there is less liquidity or due to greater sensitivity to changes in market conditions (social, political and economic conditions). Some emerging markets offer less security than the majority of international developed markets. For this reason, services for portfolio transactions, liquidation and conservation on behalf of funds invested in emerging markets may carry greater risk.