AMP Capital Investors has acquired the RBS Social Infrastructure Trust from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Australia.
The acquisition of the fund, which has been renamed the AMP Capital Community Infrastructure Fund, was approved yesterday at a unit holder meeting and AMP Capital has become the responsible entity for the fund.
The $80 million fund consists of four properties: Schools II, a project that includes the construction and maintenance of 11 schools in New South Wales, Emergency Alerting System, which consists of 227 sites with towers and transmission equipment, in Victoria, the Southbank Institute redevelopment project in Queensland and the Darwin Convention Centre in the Northern Territory.
As part of the transaction three RBS staff will join AMP Capital, including asset managers Trent Mikkonnen and Natalie O'Brien, who will start 13 September this year.
AMP Capital infrastructure investment specialist Julie-Anne Mizzi will take on the responsibility as portfolio manager for the fund.
"Our goal is to establish the AMP Capital Community Infrastructure Fund as the pre-eminent public private partnership (PPP) infrastructure investment fund in Australia," AMP Capital global head of infrastructure Phil Garling said.
"This means we will continue to acquire additional infrastructure assets in the portfolio, adding value for investors through diversification," he said.
The company intends to expand the portfolio with assets that have similar characteristics as those already in the fund, including schools, hospitals, police stations and conference centres.
"We plan to raise additional equity and continue to seek strong, stable, PPP infrastructure assets to acquire to complement the existing portfolio," Garling said.
AMP Capital's flagship infrastructure fund, the Infrastructure Equity Fund, will also take a cornerstone investment in the fund.
"The sale of the fund is part of our continued progress towards our strategic plan of exiting our non-core activities," RBS head of Asia Pacific non-core portfolio and banking Alun Lewis said.
As part of the exit strategy, RBS Australia is also still in discussions to sell its reverse mortgage business.
