Following CLI’s investor day, Aussie press carries story on CLI acquiring Wingate
During the course of Nov 22, Lee Chee Koon, group chief executive officer of CLI, claimed: “For nonpublic credit we have actually developed our own team and formed a collaboration with teams from Wingate in Australia, originating and underwriting offers and there’s a whole lot of more pipeline we can integrate in Australia and Asia-Pacific.”
It is useful that on Nov 25, the Australian Financial Review ran a story mentioning that CLI considered to obtain Wingate.
The business recently disclosed that it had designated two senior hires to newly created jobs to enhance its talent bench and spearhead growth in its target market. Angelo Scasserra will be the CEO of CLI Australia, and Rahul Bharara will be its chief investment officer. They are projected to join the firm in 1H2025.
CLI additionally stated it is going to invest approximately A$ 1 billion ($ 876.7 million) to grow funds under management (FUM) in Australia. In September, CLI finalized its Australian Credit Programme (ACP). ACP is CLI’s maiden credit fund at A$ 265 million, backed by Asian investors.
CapitaLand sold off its remaining 39.1% risk in Australand in March 2014 after partially unloading its involvement in November 2013 to improve trading assets.
In 2014, CapitaLand divested Australand Property Group, that was then grabbed by Frasers Property and has since been renamed Frasers Property Australia. During the question-and-answer discussion, Miguel Ko, chairperson of CLI, claimed that the decision to offer Australand and invest even more in China was generated just before his time.
In the course of its investor day on Nov 22, CapitaLand Investment’s (CLI) management said it is looking to expand its business in Australia.
At the time, Lim Ming Yan, CapitaLand’s then-president and group CEO, said that the divestment came amid “favourable” market situations. Australand’s share cost likewise carried out strongly in the past couple of months prior to the divestment. “This divestment would permit us to reapportion capital to our core firms in Singapore and China.”
He included that the company “did not have a crystal ball, obviously, about China’s condition nowadays” and did not want to talk about his predecessors’ decisions. At the time, China was booming and CapitaLand had a huge competitive advantage. “That could have been a major win or an incorrect action. This is not a talk regardless if my predecessors made a right or wrong judgment.”
