Following CLI's investor day, Aussie press carries story on CLI acquiring Wingate

Capital Tower and CapitaSky (Picture: CapitaLand)

During its investor day on Nov 22, CapitaLand Investment's (CLI) management said it is looking to expand its business in Australia.

The company recently announced that it had appointed two senior hires to newly created roles to strengthen its talent bench and spearhead growth in its focus market. Angelo Scasserra will be the CEO of CLI Australia, and Rahul Bharara will be its chief investment officer. They are expected to join the company in 1H2025.

CLI also said it will invest up to A$1 billion ($876.7 million) to grow funds under management (FUM) in Australia. In September, CLI closed its Australian Credit Programme (ACP). ACP is CLI’s maiden credit fund at A$265 million, backed by Asian investors.

During the course of Nov 22, Lee Chee Koon, group CEO of CLI, said: “For private credit we’ve built our own team and formed a partnership with teams from Wingate in Australia, originating and underwriting deals and there’s a lot of more pipeline we can build in Australia and Asia-Pacific.”

It is interesting that on Nov 25, the Australian Financial Review ran a story saying that CLI planned to acquire Wingate.

In 2014, CapitaLand divested Australand Property Group, which was then snapped up by Frasers Property and has since been renamed Frasers Property Australia. During the question-and-answer session, Miguel Ko, chairman of CLI, said that the decision to sell Australand and invest more in China was made before his time.

He added that the company "did not have a crystal ball, of course, about China's situation today" and did not want to comment on his predecessors' decisions. At the time, China was booming and CapitaLand had a huge competitive advantage. “That could have been a major win or a wrong move. This is not a comment on whether my predecessors made a right or wrong decision.”

At the time, Lim Ming Yan, CapitaLand’s then-president and group CEO, said that the divestment came amid “favourable” market conditions. Australand’s share price also performed strongly in the past few months before the divestment. "This divestment would allow us to reallocate capital to our core businesses in Singapore and China."

CapitaLand sold its remaining 39.1% stake in Australand in March 2014 after partially divesting its stake in November 2013 to improve trading liquidity.