Maple-Brown Abbott deal presents complementary growth path for Antipodes
The acquisition of Maple-Brown Abbott (MBA) is expected to be earnings accretive for Antipodes Partners and presents it with further avenues for growth.
It was announced in mid-July that fund manager MBA had finalised an agreement to be acquired by Antipodes Partners, an affiliate of Pinnacle Investment Management.
The size of the deal was not disclosed, but the combined firm will have $18.6 billion in assets under management, almost equally divided between the two firms.
Antipodes was founded in 2015 and manages global and emerging market equities, while MBA was established back in 1984, specialising in Australian equities as well Asia-Pacific equities and multi-asset.
On a call announcing the firm’s full-year results, Pinnacle managing director Ian Macoun was asked how the acquisition was expected to benefit Antipodes.
“Maple-Brown Abbott is accretive to Antipodes, they have put capital into that and Pinnacle has put in its pro-rata share of the capital requirement. That will be very nicely accretive.”
Dan Longan, Pinnacle chief financial officer, added: “We think it’s a deal that makes a lot of sense for Antipodes and we absolutely understand the rationale there. We think it gives them further avenues for future growth in asset classes that are pretty nicely complementary.
“But it will take them a bit of time to do the things they need to do to bring those businesses together before we see real significant earnings growth on top of that modest earnings accretion.”
During the financial year, Antipodes also acquired three Asia-focused retail funds which expanded its product suite. The firm now represents 8.5 per cent of Pinnacle’s total funds under management, making it Pinnacle’s fifth-largest affiliate out of 15.
If the MBA deal proceeds, MBA’s global listed infrastructure, Australian value equities, and Australian small companies investment teams will operate autonomously under the MBA brand, alongside Antipodes’ existing global equities investment team.
MBA’s global listed infrastructure investment capability will continue to be majority-owned by its investment team led by Andrew Maple-Brown, Steven Kempler and Justin Lannen, and managed as a discrete entity.
There will be no changes to personnel within the MBA Australian value equities and MBA Australian small companies teams, which will report to Andrew Findlay, Antipodes’ managing director and CEO.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
Bennelong Funds Management chief executive John Burke has told Money Management that the firm is seeking to invest in boutiques in two specific asset classes as it identifies gaps in its product range.
Responsible investment performance concerns have lessened as the market hits $1.6 trillion in AUM, according to RIAA’s annual report, but greenwashing fears among asset managers are on the rise.
Research by Morningstar has found fixed income funds are bucking a general trend around managed fund fee dispersion with a smaller fee dispersion compared to equity ones.
As investors seek to diversify their portfolios, the naming of bond labels has broadened out to include green, social and impact bonds, according to the annual RIAA report.
