Alternatives news roundup: AustralianSuper to add 52 staff in London in infra, private debt push; Anbang's asset sale attracts PE consortia bids
AUSTRALIA
AustralianSuper is set to embark on a A$5 billion ($3.7 billion) overseas spending spree, and increase its presence in London as the superannuation giant seeks more offshore opportunities.
The A$270 billion fund aims to increase its London-based staff from 38 to 90 as it incrases its hunt for infrastructure and private debt assets. The move follows AustralianSuper opening a New York office last month, which is another key plank in its plans to invest the A$5 billion over the next 12 months.
AustralianSuper currently employs about 170 investment professionals domestically and overseas.
Source: Financial Times
Queensland state investor QIC expanded its private debt global team with new hires Evan Nahnsen and Lindsay Scully, who are based in New York, and David Spiez in Brisbane.
Nahnsen joins as head of private debt for infrastructure and will lead the global investment team based out of New York and London. He was most recently employed at AMP Capital where he was a principal in the infrastructure debt team. Nahnsen reports to Andrew Jones, head of private debt.
Scully joins QIC as principal in the same team, and will lead investments in the North American market. She was previously a director for energy and infrastructure at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Banks where she specialised in power generation and midstream energy assets in North America.
Brisbane-based Spiez has also joined the private debt team as general manager for strategy and operations. He was most recently managing director for commercial real estate at Standard Chartered Bank, based in Dubai. All three joined the fund last week.
Source: QIC
The Sydney Airport board has rejected the A$22 billion takeover bid by a consortium comprising IFM Investors, QSuper and Global Infrastructure Management.
The investment consortium made a bid of $8.25 per share early this month, which was 40% higher than the airport’s share price at the time.
However, the board and its investors agreed that the offer was opportunistic and underpriced at levels far below pre-pandemic trading prices.
Source: Australian Financial Review
Gilmour Space Technologies secured A$$61 million ($47 million) from global investors in what is the largest private equity investment raised by a space company in Australia.
The Series C round, which includes US-based Fine Structure Ventures, Australian venture capital firms Blackbird and Main Sequence, and Australian superannuation funds Hesta, Hostplus and NGS Super, brings the company’s total funds raised to date to $87 million.
Source: SatNews
CHINA
The Chinese government is looking to sell nearly 99% of its stake in troubled insurance company Anbang, which is valued at Rmb33.6 billion ($5.2 billion), public records show.
State-owned China Insurance Security Fund (CISF) and oil giant Sinopec Group are selling their respective 98.23% and 0.55% stakes in Dajia Insurance Group, the company created to take over the assets, according to a post released on July 16 by the Beijing Financial Assets Exchange.
The sale has attracted six consortia, Caixin has reported. One is led by e-commerce company JD.com and Hopu Investment Management, a private equity company, sources close to Dajia said. Another consortia consists of state-run investment company Xiamen International Financial Technology and Primavera Capital Group, another private equity company.
Other potential buyers include online insurer ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance, and state-owned carmaker Chery Automobile, they said.
Source: Nikkei Asia, Caixin
INDONESIA
Indonesia’s new wealth fund, the infrastructure-focused Indonesia Investment Authority, is studying 50 companies for potential funds, and has a $200 billion final asset target, Ridha Wirakusumah, president director told Bloomberg.
The fund has so far received pledges from investment managers in the United Arab Emirates, Japan, the US and Canada. It previously had its first $3.75 billion deal signed with pension funds Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and APG Asset Management, as well as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
“People ask me if I’m afraid of the $200 billion target. No, I’m not,” Wirakusumah said. “What I’m afraid of is the first $1 billion and the first $5 billion -- those are the hardest ones.”
Source: Bloomberg
JAPAN
Institutional investors are flocking into Japan’s residential property market, as value assets in one of Asia’s most prosperous nations outweigh concerns of a resurgence in Covid-19 infections, ageing demographics and the trend of remote work that has emptied major urban centres.
Savills Investment Management, under its Japan Residential Fund II recently acquired a ¥24 billion yen ($218 million) portfolio of 10 assets in residential markets in central and outer Tokyo, central Osaka and central Nagoya. The fund also acquired four assets between April and May in the Yoyogi-Uehara, Ikebukuro and Ikejiri-ohashi wards in the Japanese capital.
Joining the action was AXA IM Alts, an alternative investment manager under the French insurer AXA, which paid ¥4.2 billion in May for two residential towers in the Miyagi prefectural capital of Sendai, the site of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and its ensuing tsunami. The purchase marked AXA’s 15th investment into Japan’s residential market with a total portfolio of ¥71.4 billion so far.
Source: South China Morning Post
KOREA
The Public Officials Benefit Association (Poba) has made an additional commitment of €200 million ($274 million) to CBRE Global Investors to build a diversified European real estate portfolio.
After leveraging, this discretionary commitment provides additional investment capacity in excess of €400 million.
Source: CBRE Global Investors
Poba also recently picked GCM Grosvenor, a US alternative investor, as its new separate account manager to invest $300 million in private infrastructure, according to the Financial News.
The separately managed account (SMA) will target privately owned or unlisted infrastructure in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia with an investment period of 13 years, which can be extended by two years.
Source: Financial News; Korea Economic Daily
SINGAPORE
Singapore's GIC formed a $2 billion partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and US developer Boston Properties to co-invest in office properties in the US. GIC committed $500 million while CPPIB and Boston Properties allocated $250 million each.
The joint ventures will seek to acquire and operate office assets in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington and Seattle.
Source: Mingtiandi
Singapore state investor Temasek invested a further $10 million in Singaporean alternative protein startup Next Gen. The $20 million round, in which venture capital firms K3 Ventures and GGV Ventures also participated, brings Next Gen’s total seed financing to $30 million.
The startup said it will use the funds to expand its presence in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and enter the US market. In the plant-based protein space, Temasek is also an investor in the US’s Impossible Foods and Australia's V2food.
Source: DealStreetAsia
Private equity manager Aqua Capital and GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, entered into a binding agreement for the acquisition by GIC of a significant minority stake in Biotrop Soluções Biológicas (Biotrop), a leading Brazilian biological ag inputs company majority owned by Aqua Capital's Fund II.
The final close of the transaction is still subject to the approval of the Brazilian anti-trust authority (CADE) and is expected to take place within 60 days.
Biotrop is a company focused on developing and producing high-tech biological agricultural inputs, a critical vertical for promoting sustainability and increasing productivity in agribusiness.
Source: PR Newswire