Funds holding a majority of the shares of AMP Capital Retail Trust decided to hire Sydney-based GPT Group to manage the A$2.7 billion ($1.8 billion) portfolio of shopping centers in Australia, replacing AMP's money management unit Collimate Capital.
A GPT announcement to Australia’s stock exchange dated Sept. 2 said UniSuper and the property arm of Cbus Super, two Melbourne-based funds with A$106 billion and A$70 billion in retirement assets respectively, have selected GPT to oversee ACRT. GPT is a diversified property group, managing a A$25 billion portfolio of retail, office and logistics property assets across Australia.
Spokesmen for UniSuper and Cbus declined to comment.
AMP, in a separate announcement on Sept. 2, said the transfer of the fund to an outside manager won’t derail the sale of AMP’s real estate and domestic infrastructure equity businesses to Sydney-based property group Dexus. That sale is expected to close by November, AMP said.
However, Dexus and AMP said the maximum earnout, on top of Dexus’ upfront payment of A$250 million for Collimate Capital, would fall to between A$20 million and A$25 million, reflecting the drop in Collimate Capital’s combined infrastructure and real estate AUM to just under A$18 billion from over A$20 billion.
In April, the potential earnout for AMP’s sale of Collimate Capital to Dexus, initially pegged at A$300 million, dropped to A$75 million when unitholders of the A$7.7 billion AMP Capital Wholesale Office fund voted to install Mirvac Funds Management Australia as AWOF’s manager, in place of AMP.
GPT’s share price rose 2.7% on Sept. 2 to A$4.23 while AMP’s share price dropped 1.7% to A$1.1450 and Dexus edged up 0.5% to A$8.50. The broader S&P/ASX 200 benchmark index slipped 0.24% on Sept. 2.
