Following CLI’s investor day, Aussie press carries story on CLI acquiring Wingate
The business recently announced that it had assigned 2 senior hires to newly established duties to enhance 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 partner with the company in 1H2025.
CapitaLand sold off its lasting 39.1% risk in Australand in March 2014 after partially divesting its involvement in November 2013 to enhance trading liquidity.
At the time, Lim Ming Yan, CapitaLand’s then-president and group chief executive officer, stated that the divestment came amid “beneficial” market conditions. Australand’s share price likewise performed highly in the past couple of months before the divestment. “This divestment would permit us to reallocate capital to our core firms in Singapore and China.”
CLI additionally said it is going to invest up to A$ 1 billion ($ 876.7 million) to increase funds under management (FUM) in Australia. In September, CLI shut its Australian Credit Program (ACP). ACP is CLI’s maiden credit fund at A$ 265 million, supported by Asian investors.
It is interesting that on Nov 25, the Australian Financial Review ran a story saying that CLI intended to obtain Wingate.
He added that the firm “did not have a prediction, certainly, about China’s circumstance these days” and did not want to discuss his forerunners’ decisions. At that time, China was growing and CapitaLand had a massive competitive advantage. “That could have been a significant win or a wrong move. This is not a talk regardless if my predecessors made a best or wrong choice.”
In the course of its investor day on Nov 22, CapitaLand Investment’s (CLI) management said it is seeking to broaden its business in Australia.
During the course of Nov 22, Lee Chee Koon, group chief executive officer of CLI, claimed: “For exclusive credit we’ve built our own group and formed a partnership with teams from Wingate in Australia, coming from and signing offers and there’s a whole lot of more pipeline we can build in Australia and Asia-Pacific.”
In 2014, CapitaLand unloaded Australand Property Group, which was then grabbed by Frasers Property and has actually since been renamed Frasers Property Australia. Throughout the question-and-answer session, Miguel Ko, chairperson of CLI, claimed that the decision to offer Australand and invest more in China was prepared even before his time.
