AMP Ltd. may be forced to sell its business in pieces after Ares Management Corp. scrapped a A$6.4 billion ($4.9 billion) bid for Australia’s oldest wealth manager, sending shares tumbling in the latest setback for long-suffering investors reeling from years of scandal.
Ares told AMP that it doesn’t intend to proceed with its bid for the whole company after making an indicative offer last year, according to an AMP statement Thursday. The U.S. private equity firm is still interested in AMP Capital, the firm’s A$190 billion asset management unit that invests across unlisted real estate, infrastructure and global markets.
AMP Capital is the company’s most prized unit, accounting for more than a third of underlying earnings. It’s one of the largest direct real estate investors in Asia with A$28 billion in assets and is building a skyscraper in Sydney’s Circular Quay. The business also manages infrastructure assets for third-party owners, and this is of particular interest to Ares, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private.
Read more/Source: Yahoo Finance
