AMP Ltd. agreed on Thursday to sell its A$9 billion ($6.5 billion) international infrastructure equity business — the last remaining piece of its Collimate Capital private markets affiliate — to Nasdaq-listed digital infrastructure investment firm DigitalBridge Group.
An AMP news release posted to Australia's stock exchange said DigitalBridge Investment Holdco LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boca Raton, Florida-based manager of $45 billion in global digital infrastructure assets, will make an upfront payment of A$462 million for the platform.
In addition, DigitalBridge will pay "an estimated A$57 million of retained future carry and performance fees, and an additional amount of up to A$180 million contingent on future fund raisings," according to the AMP announcement Thursday.
DigitalGroup, in a separate announcement dated Wednesday, said the acquisition will enhance its capabilities in a midmarket segment of the global infrastructure market that's complementary to its core focus on data centers, cell towers, fiber networks, small cells and edge infrastructure.
An AMP spokesman called the digital infrastructure sector one of four areas of focus for AMP's international infrastructure equity business.
With the deal's expected completion by the end of 2022, all of the assets of Collimate Capital — the corporate vehicle AMP launched to house the Sydney-based financial conglomerate's private markets asset management businesses in anticipation of a demerger exercise — will have been sold off.
On Wednesday, AMP announced an agreement to sell a combined A$31 billion in real estate and domestic infrastructure equity assets to Sydney-based Dexus Funds Management for an upfront payment of A$250 million, with the prospect of a further A$300 million in earnouts subject to the business's retention of assets under management over the nine months following the completion of the deal.
Going forward, AMP will focus on its banking and wealth management businesses, the firm said.
In Sydney trading Thursday, AMP's stock price jumped 12.2% to A$1.15, with 51 million shares trading hands, on a day when the broader market posted a 1.2% gain.
