Street Talk

MA Financial courts $2b commercial property investor; deal imminent

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

May 20, 2025 – 4.05pm

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The $1.3 billion MA Financial Group is in advanced discussions to acquire real estate investment firm IP Generation, which owns $2 billion worth of shopping malls ranging from David Jones’ iconic Melbourne CBD location to Merimbula Square on NSW’s far south coast.

Street Talk can reveal MA co-CEO Julian Biggins spearheaded negotiations with IP Generation’s owners, led by founder Chris Lock, who previously headed the Liberman family-backed Impact Investment Group. As this column reported at the time, Lock parted ways with Impact in 2017.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.