AMP offloads international infrastructure equity business for $462m

A day after confirming the sale of Collimate Capital’s real estate and domestic infrastructure equity business to Dexus Funds Management, AMP announced on Thursday it has inked a deal with a subsidiary of the DigitalBridge Group, DigitalBridge Investment Holdco, for an upfront consideration of $462 million and total value of up to $699 million.

Combined with the $430 million from the sale of the domestic infrastructure equity and real estate business announced on Wednesday and the $578 million from the sale of the infrastructure debt platform completed in February 2022, this latest sale values the total Collimate Capital business at up to $2.04 billion including the value of retained assets, and up to $2.5 billion when factoring in the maximum earnouts.

“The transactions we have announced in the past two days represent a strong outcome for AMP shareholders and Collimate Capital stakeholders,” said AMP Limited chair, Debra Hazelton.

“It was clear in our 2021 portfolio review that we had two businesses that would be better separated and simplified and in doing so, realise greater value and that is what we have achieved.

“AMP and Collimate Capital have built outstanding private markets businesses in infrastructure and real estate over many years. In selling these businesses to such respected specialists in DigitalBridge and Dexus, we are confident that the businesses’ clients and the talented teams transferring with them will benefit,” Ms Hazelton noted.

AMP’s post sales strategy, she confirmed, is to focus on growing AMP Bank and the wealth management business under CEO Alexis George’s leadership.

“This is an important moment for AMP shareholders, clients and our people, as we announce the sale of our remaining Collimate Capital business. These sales realise significant value for shareholders and deliver certainty for clients and for our people,” said Ms George.  

“In DigitalBridge and Dexus, we are confident we have found the right owners for both businesses. They are focused on delivering strong returns for Collimate Capital’s clients and opportunities for our people. We expect [that] both will add significant value through their scale, capability and depth of talent, which our teams will complement.”

AMP plans to return the majority of net cash proceeds from the recent transactions to shareholders, while directing some of the proceeds to pay down corporate debt.

The transaction is set to close in the fourth quarter of 2022.