Antipodes has successfully completed its acquisition of Maple-Brown Abbott (MBA), with the group now managing over $20 billion in AUM across four autonomous investment teams.
The fund manager, an affiliate of Pinnacle Investment Management, first announced the acquisition in July.
At the time, Andrew Findlay, Antipodes’ managing director and CEO, described MBA as a “storied investment boutique” with well-respected and well-rated strategies servicing clients globally.
Shortly after, Pinnacle managing director Ian Macoun also noted the acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive for Antipodes Partners and presents it with further avenues for growth.
While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Antipodes has now confirmed the deal was completed in August, with assets under management crossing $20 billion.
In a statement to Money Management, Findlay noted there have also seen some moves within the MBA team.
“There is no change to MBA’s global listed infrastructure, Australian value equities or Australian small companies investment teams,” Findlay said.
However, four members of MBA’s former Asia and emerging markets team have joined Antipodes’ global equities team with the rationalising of the two MBA funds.
“After undertaking a strategic review of our funds following the merger with Maple-Brown Abbott, we made the decision to rationalise the Maple-Brown Abbott Global Emerging Markets fund and the Asian fund given these overlapped with Antipodes’ existing offerings,” Findlay said.
“Unitholders were provided the option to switch their investments into the Antipodes Emerging Markets Fund or Antipodes Asia Fund.”
Earlier this year, the firms had outlined MBA’s global listed infrastructure, Australian value equities, and Australian small companies investment teams would operate autonomously under the Maple-Brown Abbott brand, alongside Antipodes’ existing global equities investment team.
Meanwhile MBA’s global listed infrastructure investment capability would 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.
Findlay explained the transition of MBA’s funds is now “well-progressed”, earmarking it should be completed by June 2025.
“The transition of MBA’s funds to Antipodes’ operating model – where the majority of non-investment functions are supported by Pinnacle – is well-progressed and is expected to be complete by the end of this financial year,” he told Money Management.
All Sydney-based staff will be co-located in a single office from early 2025.
This is one of several acquistions enacted by Pinnacle this year as it has already taken a stake in UK-based Life Cycle Investment Partners and Pacific Asset Management as well as US-based private markets manager VSS.
