MFF Capital Investments has announced its intention to acquire asset manager Montaka Global Investments.
Montaka has $260 million across three funds and offices in New York and Sydney.
Under the arrangement, Montaka’s funds will operate independently of MFF and investors will continue to benefit from Montaka’s philosophy, funds and team which will all remain unchanged.
Principals Andrew Macken and Chris Demasi will maintain their roles as chief investment officer and portfolio manager, respectively, and Amit Nath will continue as director of research.
All Montaka staff will be retained, and MFF said it hopes to add to the firm’s administrative teams in order to free up the time of the investment team.
Montaka added the acquisition will provide greater access to resources and experience, ensure permanence needed to continue to make concentrated investments and enhance its research focus.
MFF Capital Investments is a $2 billion listed investment company set up by Chris Mackay, who co-founded Magellan, and is the largest unitholder in Montaka’s funds.
“MFF and Montaka Global have both focused upon high quality companies (with sustainable competitive advantages and above average prospects of future profitable cash flow growth) at satisfactory prices (or better).
Montaka Global has successfully identified and researched important structural economic and business transformations with significant investment opportunities, including companies that have expanded into profitable adjacencies which enhance customer experiences and core businesses,” MFF said in a statement to the ASX.
“In addition to portfolio management, MFF considers that Montaka Global’s focus on unit trusts is sensible and complementary to MFF.
“Another important structural feature is that exchange-traded trusts (including Montaka Global’s) are targeted to trade closely around pre-tax net assets and operate under a globally leading disclosure regime.”
Montaka principals Macken and Demasi said: “Montaka and MFF also share a common investment philosophy. Both Montaka and MFF are high-conviction, long-duration global equities managers that seek to own advantaged long-term ‘winners’ in large transformations while they are undervalued.
“Given this connection, Montaka and MFF have successfully collaborated for several years. This has helped to significantly improve Montaka’s investment capability and allowed MFF to benefit from Montaka’s deep research and insights. Montaka and MFF also have several portfolio holdings in common.”
The acquisition is scheduled to complete in early 2025 subject to final binding agreements.
