Plenary heats up race for AMP’s CommIF fund, meets investors

The investment group is doubling down on efforts to win management control of the Community Infrastructure Fund which AMP is hoping will end up with Dexus.

AMP’s CommIF has increased its stake in theRoyal Adelaide Hospital RAH. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Infrastructure investor Plenary is doubling down on efforts to win management control of AMP’s Community Infrastructure Fund, holding fresh investor meetings to gauge support.

Plenary has been actively engaging with the AMP fund’s investors this month as it attempts to win enough support to make a formal proposal or call for an investor meeting, according to sources.

Unlike in 2021 when the firm was knocked back by an AMP independent board committee, Plenary has not yet lodged a proposal with the fund and AMP in an attempt to wrest control of the management rights. A Plenary spokesman declined to comment, as did an AMP spokesman.

The latest jostling around the Community Infrastructure Fund, or CommIF, is happening as investors in three AMP funds navigate a complex situation where other firms want to shake loose the management rights.

AMP has agreed to sell its local property and infrastructure business to Dexus as part of a simplification strategy that will see it hand some proceeds to shareholders rather than spin off its private markets division. That process – which AMP is hoping will see its local investment funds transfer to Dexus – has triggered other firms to again target the management of AMP funds.

CommIF invests in brownfield, social infrastructure public-private partnership assets in Australia and New Zealand across sectors such as education, health, justice, water, transport and community housing. The fund holds 18 assets worth about $6.2bn, and last year raised its holding in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. But given the nature of the assets in the CommIF fund, sources said change of control clauses and triggers for this investment vehicle were more complicated than those in AMP property funds for example.

Plenary – whose Australian projects include the Footscray Hospital in Melbourne and the Gold Coast light rail – was not alone in expressing interest in CommIF last year. Morrison & Co and Palisade Investment Partners were also in detailed discussions over the fund with AMP, that didn’t progress.

Plenary has been highly active in manoeuvring, though, and last year lured a handful of AMP Capital staff and its joint global head of social infrastructure Julie-Anne Mizzi to boost its ranks and aid attempts to gain management of CommIF.

The battle for management rights of another AMP fund should conclude this week as property group Mirvac seeks to win control from Dexus. The decision rests with investors who are weighing the detailed options put to them by the firms.

AMP on Monday made a late pitch with a fee waiver to convince investors in its $7.5bn wholesale office fund to side with its preferred manager, Dexus, warning they will face a hostile situation if they shift to rival Mirvac. In a letter to stakeholders, AMP real estate boss Kylie O’Connor highlighted fees of $30m would not be levied on AMP Capital Wholesale Office Fund investors if they supported Dexus. The letter also warned investors that a vote for Mirvac would impinge on any transitional arrangements.

The issue comes to a head on Friday when investors must vote on AWOF’s management.

The fund has interests in assets such as the Quay Quarter Tower and Angel Place in Sydney’s CBD and Collins Place in the heart of Melbourne.