Manulife Forest Climate Fund’s first international timberland investment

BOSTON – October 2, 2025 — Manulife Investment Management (Manulife IM), a company of Manulife Wealth & Asset Management, announced today the closing of a timberland transaction in New South Wales, Australia, on behalf of Manulife Forest Climate Fund. Under the terms of the agreement, Manulife IM, the world’s largest timberland investment manager,¹ acquired approximately 18,100 acres of land with more than 11,900 acres of radiata pine plantations.

The acquisition comprises four properties in the Murray Valley region of New South Wales between the communities of Albury and Tumbarumba and includes two registered forest carbon projects under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit program. The transaction expands Manulife IM’s acreage of timberland under management in Australia to over 1.36 million acres.

The properties were acquired from New Forests, which had owned the asset for a decade and its sale forms part of the divestment program for New Forests’ Australian New Zealand Forestry Fund 2 (ANZFF2).

"Our team has 27 years of experience managing timberland investments in Australia on behalf of clients,” said Tom Sarno, global head of timberland investments, Manulife IM. “The assets, which are Manulife Forest Climate Fund’s first international timberland investment, are attractively stocked with a mix of mature and young radiata pine plantations, and are close to well-established timber markets and leading Australian producers of forest products. We look forward to managing the property to generate timber, forest carbon, and other natural capital values.”

Manulife IM sustainably manages approximately 5.6 million acres of timberland across the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, and Chile, representing $11.7 billion AUM, as part of its comprehensive private markets strategy, including agriculture, infrastructure, private equity, private credit, and real estate.²

1  IPE research as of January 24, 2025. Ranking is based on total Natural Capital AUM, which includes forestry/timberland and agriculture/farmland AUM. Firms were asked to provide AUM and the as of dates vary from December 31, 2023, to December 31, 2024. 2  As of December 31, 2024.

About Manulife Wealth & Asset Management

As part of Manulife Financial Corporation, Manulife Wealth & Asset Management provides global investment, financial advice, and retirement plan services to 19 million individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Our mission is to make decisions easier and lives better by empowering people today to invest for a better tomorrow. As a committed partner to our clients and as a responsible steward of investor capital, we offer a heritage of risk management, deep expertise across public and private markets, and comprehensive retirement plan services. We seek to provide better investment and impact outcomes and to help people confidently save and invest for a more secure financial future. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit  manulifeim.com.

Media contact

Elizabeth Bartlett
Manulife Investment Management
Elizabeth_Bartlett@Manulife.com