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CapitaLand Investment to step up Australia presence with A$200 million acquisition

By The Edge Singapore

/ The Edge Singapore |

December 16, 2024 10:00 AM SGT

Wingate’s founder Farrel Meltzer (left) and CLI's group CEO Lee Chee Koon. Photo: CLI

CapitaLand Investment Limited (CLI) is further stepping up its presence in Australia with the A$200 million ($173 million) acquisition of the property and corporate credit investment management business of Wingate Group Holdings, plus an earn-out.

Upon completion of this acquisition, the A$2.5 billion in funds under management now under Wingate will help increase CLI's total FUM in Australia by 30% to $8.3 billion, or around 7% of its total of $115 billion.

CLI has a 2028 ambition to reach $200 billion in FUM.

As part of this target, CLI has committed to investing up to A$1 billion to grow its FUM Down Under — a recent focus that comes a decade after the previous board and management divested its key assets in Australia to focus on what was then faster-growing China and other overseas markets.

The acquisition announced before market on Dec 16 confirms earlier reports by the Australian media last month.

Wingate is described as one of the leading and largest private credit investment managers in Australia, with a track record of completing more than 350 transactions worth than A$20 billion.

CLI is no stranger to Wingate. In September, it announced the close of its A$265 million Australia Credit Program (ACP), which was created in partnership with Wingate.

According to CLI, Wingate can help enlarge CLI’s extensive proprietary deal origination networks, enhance its access to more institutional and private high-net-worth investors and increase its geographical exposure to Australia.

Paul Tham, CLI's group CFO, says besides Australia, there are scalable private credit opportunities in other Asia Pacific markets, most notably in South Korea, India and Japan.

“As we accelerate our geographical diversification efforts, Australia is one of CLI’s focus markets where we see significant potential for growth," he adds.

According to CLI, in April, the Australian private capital market grew 33% over the past 18 months with assets under management reaching A$139 billion. A forecasted A$146 billion commercial mortgage funding gap is expected by 2028.

With Wingate, CLI will further diversify its portfolio which comprises logistics, business parks, office and lodging assets across nine cities in Australia.

As at Sept 30, CLI manages 34 logistics properties and business parks and four Grade A office buildings in Australia. It also has over 13,500 lodging units across more than 150 properties under its wholly-owned lodging business unit, The Ascott.

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