Plenary Group wades into battle for AMP’s Collimate Capital

Plenary Group has become the latest group wading into the battle to secure parts of AMP’s Collimate Capital. Picture: Hollie Adams

Infrastructure investment manager Plenary Group has become the latest group wading into the battle to secure parts of AMP’s Collimate Capital, with sources suggesting it is angling to take control of its Community Infrastructure Fund.

Plenary made efforts to take over the management of the AMP Capital Community Infrastructure fund last year but was thought to have lacked investor support.

This was along with Morrison & Co and Palisade.

But now the understanding is that domestic investors and Korean institutional investors, which account for more than 50 per cent of shareholders, are taking meetings with Plenary, which is having a second attempt in taking the fund into its stable.

The AMP Community Infrastructure Fund invests in high-yield, brownfield, social infrastructure public-private partnership assets in Australia and New Zealand, in sectors such as education, health, justice, water, transport, community housing and recreational facilities.

The fund now has 18 assets worth more than $5.8bn.

It is one of the funds in AMP’s funds management business Collimate Capital – previously called AMP Capital – which has come under threat with investors considering taking their money to rivals due to concerns about under performance.

Sources believe that Korean investors account for at least half of the shareholders in the Community Infrastructure Fund and while some suggest that they have concerns about a change of manager, along with other domestic unitholders, others say that Plenary has no support.

AMP announced in April that it had sold the Collimate Capital infrastructure business to DigitalBridge for up to $699m and Collimate’s property funds management business and domestic infrastructure equity business to Dexus Property Group for up to $300m.

The deal sees Dexus take on the management of about $18.2bn of real estate assets and $9.7bn of infrastructure.

Dexus is also offering to buy co-investment stakes in the platform for up to $450m and remains in discussion with investors.

It comes as Mirvac Group released a statement to the market on Friday saying that it understood that unitholders had written to AMP to call a unitholder meeting to vote on replacing the Australian listed financial company as manager of the AMP Capital Wholesale Office Fund (AWOF) with the Mirvac Group ahead of a sale to Dexus.

This was along with other proposed amendments to the constitutions of AWOF.

To pass the resolutions for the Change of Trustee, at least 50 per cent of the total votes that may be cast by AWOF unitholders entitled to vote on the resolutions are required to vote in favour.

Sources suggest that Mirvac has support from 56 per cent of the shareholder register, although others say it is closer to 43 per cent, 15 per cent of which are in support of Dexus and are calling a vote to bring closure to the matter.

AMP now has two months to call a meeting.

Meanwhile, unitholders in the AMP Capital Shopping Centre Fund are also said to be in talks with retail property landlords like GPT Group, Scentre Group and Vicinity Centres, which are keen to wrestle control of the fund away before it is sold to Dexus.

Dexus Property Group had also earlier won control of the valuable AMP Capital diversified property fund with $4.5bn worth of properties under its control.

No doubt pressure will be building on AMP’s top executives to hold the sale of Collimate Capital together, with Dexus having the opportunity to walk away from paying the highest, agreed acquisition price of Collimate Capital should investors opt to take their funds elsewhere.

Plenary Group is an Australian infrastructure investment business specialising in public-private partnerships. It was founded in 2004 by three former ABN Amro employees with Deutsche Bank taking a 20 per cent shareholding.