Following CLI’s investor day, Aussie press carries story on CLI acquiring Wingate
The firm recently announced that it had appointed 2 leading hires to newly formed jobs to enhance its talent bench and spearhead development in its focus market. Angelo Scasserra will be the chief executive officer of CLI Australia, and Rahul Bharara will be its main investment expert. They are projected to sign up with the firm in 1H2025.
CapitaLand sold off its remaining 39.1% risk in Australand in March 2014 after partly divesting its stake in November 2013 to strengthen trading assets.
At the time, Lim Ming Yan, CapitaLand’s then-president and group CEO, claimed that the divestment came amidst “beneficial” market situations. Australand’s share price likewise performed highly in the past couple of months prior to the divestment. “This divestment would certainly allow us to reapportion capital to our core companies in Singapore and China.”
He included that the business “did not have a prediction, obviously, about China’s situation today” and did not want to discuss his predecessors’ decisions. At the time, China was thriving and CapitaLand had a substantial competitive advantage. “That could have been a major gain or an incorrect move. This is not a talk regardless if my predecessors made a best or wrong choice.”
During its investor day on Nov 22, CapitaLand Investment’s (CLI) management said it is seeking to expand its organization in Australia.
During the course of Nov 22, Lee Chee Koon, group chief executive officer of CLI, claimed: “For private credit we have actually built our own group and formed a partnership with teams from Wingate in Australia, coming from and underwriting offers and there’s a whole lot of more pipeline we can build in Australia and Asia-Pacific.”
CLI also claimed it will invest approximately A$ 1 billion ($ 876.7 million) to increase funds under management (FUM) in Australia. In September, CLI shut its Australian Credit Programme (ACP). ACP is CLI’s first credit fund at A$ 265 million, supported by Asian clients.
In 2014, CapitaLand unloaded Australand Property Group, which was then snapped up by Frasers Property and has since been renamed Frasers Property Australia. Throughout the question-and-answer discussion, Miguel Ko, director of CLI, said that the choice to offer Australand and invest even more in China was prepared even before his time.
It is interesting that on Nov 25, the Australian Financial Review ran a story stating that CLI planned to get Wingate.
