Following CLI’s investor day, Aussie press carries story on CLI acquiring Wingate
CapitaLand offered its lasting 39.1% risk in Australand in March 2014 after partially divesting its share in November 2013 to enhance trading assets.
CLI additionally said it will invest up to A$ 1 billion ($ 876.7 million) to increase funds under management (FUM) in Australia. In September, CLI finalized its Australian Credit Program (ACP). ACP is CLI’s initial credit fund at A$ 265 million, backed by Asian investors.
The company recently announced that it had assigned two top hires to newly created duties to reinforce its talent bench and spearhead growth in its focus market. Angelo Scasserra will be the CEO of CLI Australia, and Rahul Bharara is going to be its main investment specialist. They are expected to sign up with the firm in 1H2025.
During the course of its investor day on Nov 22, CapitaLand Investment’s (CLI) management stated it is seeking to expand its company in Australia.
During the course of Nov 22, Lee Chee Koon, group chief executive officer of CLI, said: “For private credit we have actually built our very own group and created a partnership with teams from Wingate in Australia, stemming and underwriting deals and there’s a lot of more pipeline we can build in Australia and Asia-Pacific.”
It is useful that on Nov 25, the Australian Financial Review ran a story stating that CLI intended to get Wingate.
He added that the company “did not have a crystal ball, certainly, about China’s condition nowadays” and did not wish to discuss his predecessors’ decisions. During the time, China was growing and CapitaLand had a substantial competitive advantage. “That could have been a significant win or an incorrect step. This is not a talk whether my predecessors made an ideal or incorrect choice.”
In 2014, CapitaLand unloaded Australand Property Group, which was then grabbed by Frasers Property and has since been renamed Frasers Property Australia. During the question-and-answer session, Miguel Ko, chairman of CLI, stated that the decision to sell Australand and invest more in China was made just before his time.
At the time, Lim Ming Yan, CapitaLand’s then-president and group CEO, claimed that the divestment came in the middle of “favourable” market conditions. Australand’s share cost likewise performed highly in the past couple of months before the divestment. “This divestment would certainly permit us to reallocate capital to our core businesses in Singapore and China.”
