Palisade Investment Partners has signed an agreement with Perpetual to acquire the management of three of its infrastructure funds.
Perpetual's Diversified Infrastructure Fund, Regional Infrastructure Fund and Rail Fund have in total $250 million in assets under management with a focus on unlisted investments.
Under the Palisade management, the funds will remain unlisted and are expected to be reopened to existing and new wholesale clients in August 2008.
"We will continue to maintain the unlisted structure of the fund, which has considerable benefits for our investors, particularly in the current environment," Palisade joint managing director Ian Mitchell said.
"It provides the transparency our clients have told us they require without the pressures that can drive financial over-engineering found in some of the listed funds."
The assets in each of the infrastructure funds fit with Palisade's strategy of focusing on niche mid-sized infrastructure assets, Mitchell said.
"The acquisition provides us with a valuable platform and a pipeline of investment opportunities from which we will grow these funds," he said.
"Our philosophy is that fewer competitors in this space results in market inefficiencies that present some excellent opportunities for investors."
Four key fund managers from Perpetual's infrastructure team, Roger Lloyd, Karen Fox, Vicki Rigg and Jim Fanning, will join Palisade's existing team of Ian Mitchell and Peter Salisbury.
"We are pleased to be joining Ian and Peter both of whom have very extensive experience in this asset class and who share our strategic vision for these funds," Perpetual head of infrastructure Roger Lloyd said.
