CAPITALAND Investment (CLI) is acquiring the property and corporate credit investment management business of Wingate Group in Australia for A$200 million (S$173 million), to expand its private credit business and portfolio in the country.
This will come on top of an earn-out that will be based on Wingate’s performance over a period of three years after the completion of the acquisition, which is slated to take place “in the coming months”.
On Monday (Dec 16), CLI said Wingate’s current A$2.5 billion funds under management (FUM) will boost the group’s FUM to S$115 billion after including the FUM of SC Capital Partners’ portfolio.
The expansion in private credit will bolster CLI’s private funds business, while providing an additional engine of growth towards the group’s S$200 billion FUM target by 2028, it added.
Wingate will remain domiciled in Australia, and CLI said it plans to maintain and grow the company’s business under its existing management.
Highlighting Australia as one of CLI’s focus markets with significant potential for growth, Paul Tham, group chief financial officer of CLI, said he also sees “scalable private credit opportunities” in other Asia-Pacific markets, most notably in South Korea, India and Japan.
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“Wingate’s private credit capabilities complement CLI’s own private funds platform, and will enable us to collaborate to create greater value for our capital partners in Australia and beyond,” he said.
“As we strengthen our position as a leading global real asset manager, we will continue to seek opportunities to scale our Australian presence through our listed funds, private funds, as well as our commercial and lodging management businesses to drive fee income growth for CLI.”
Earlier in August this year, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) broke the news that Wingate was in advanced talks with “a Singaporean company over a significant investment in the business or a takeover”, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The buyer was later in November identified as CLI, with AFR reporting that the deal was originally expected in August, but had yet to be signed as talks were delayed.
When queried separately by Mingtiandi, CLI responded that it would only “make an announcement when there are material developments”.
Shares of CLI ended Friday flat at S$2.65.
