Investment management firm Real Estate Capital Partners (ReCap) has been appointed the responsible entity for two funds managed by Mariner Securities.
Unit holders of the two funds — Mariner American Property Income Trust and Mariner Infrastructure Trust No. 1 — approved the resignation of Mariner Securities, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mariner Financial, on November 7, with the change scheduled to take effect on November 11 this year.
The vote follows an announcement in September this year that ReCap was likely to acquire management of the funds, which comprise approximately 7,000 Australian-based institutional and retail investors, with more than $550 million in funds under management.
Mariner managing director Bill Ireland said the sale of the management rights is reflective of the announcement in September to exit non-core businesses and take the company back to cash. “We are confident that those trusts will remain in good hands by [transferring] the management rights to ReCap,” Ireland said.
ReCap chief executive officer Andrew Saunders said the funds’ assets are all “high quality, secure and income producing”.
The acquisition takes ReCap’s assets under management to $650 million, increasing its investor base to 9,000 members.
Saunders said ReCap will be immediately undertaking a strategic review of the funds, which investors will be informed about in the first quarter of 2009.
“ReCap executives were instrumental in establishing Mariner’s US Trust in 2005 and we are therefore familiar with the portfolio, its property management team as well as the market itself,” Saunders said.
“ReCap has the operating infrastructure in place to improve the investment performance of the funds through existing in-house capabilities or outsourcing arrangements.”
