Andrew Maple-Brown

Antipodes Partners Holdings Pty Ltd has finalised an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Maple-Brown Abbott Limited (MBA).

The acquisition will see the MBA global listed infrastructure, Australian value equities, and Australian small companies investment teams operate autonomously under the Maple-Brown Abbott brand, alongside Antipodes’ existing global equities investment team. The expanded Antipodes Group, an affiliate of Pinnacle Investment Management Limited (ASX: PNI), will oversee a combined A$18.6 billion¹ in assets.

Maple-Brown Abbott’s global listed infrastructure investment capability will continue to be majority owned by its investment team led by Andrew Maple-Brown, Steven Kempler and Justin Lannen, and managed as a discrete entity.

There will be no changes to personnel within the MBA Australian value equities and MBA Australian small companies teams, which will report to Andrew Findlay, Antipodes’ managing director and CEO.

Mr Findlay said the addition of the MBA teams to Antipodes creates an enhanced investment management platform that will deliver benefits for clients.

“Maple-Brown Abbott is a storied investment boutique with well-respected and well-rated strategies servicing clients globally. Our business model, backed by Pinnacle’s institutional-grade fund infrastructure and global distribution capabilities, provides a stable and focussed environment for the MBA teams to continue delivering for clients well into the future.

“In partnership with the MBA teams, Antipodes is committed to building an enduring, diverse, and scalable investment management platform, alongside clients, staff, and the Pinnacle Group.”

MBA was established as an investment management firm in 1984 and is regarded as one of the pioneers of value investing in the Australian market.

Prior to its acquisition by Antipodes, MBA managed A$9.1 billion on behalf of a diverse range of global and Australian institutional, wholesale, family office, and retail clients. The acquisition will see Antipodes’ group funds under management increase to A$18.6 billion, approximately 30 per cent of which is sourced from offshore clients.

On behalf of the Maple-Brown family, Andrew Maple-Brown said MBA and Antipodes share common client-centric values and mutual ambitions to grow and strengthen a multi-generational active management platform.

“The Maple-Brown family, as majority owners of MBA, is proud of what the business has achieved in the past 40 years. Starting with the late Robert Maple-Brown AO and Christopher Abbott AM first managing $35 million back in 1984, we have expanded significantly, held true to our investment philosophies, and evolved to be the diversified business we are today. I have no doubt Maple-Brown Abbott is now positioned for this legacy to continue for many decades to come.

“The transition to new ownership will improve Maple-Brown Abbott’s market position in a highly competitive environment by operating under the enhanced Antipodes group structure and leveraging high quality distribution and support services,” Mr Maple-Brown says.

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Andrew Maple-Brown

Maple-Brown Abbott welcomes Treasury’s decision to adjust the Australian and international listed infrastructure APRA performance benchmark^[1], agreeing that the adjusted benchmark better represents the asset class and provides superannuation funds with greater choice to invest in listed infrastructure assets, to the benefit of their members.

The decision was recently announced by The Hon Stephen Jones MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, following submissions from Maple-Brown Abbott and other industry participants.

Andrew Maple-Brown, co-founder and managing director, Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure, said the adjusted benchmark – the FTSE Developed Core Infrastructure 50/50 100% Hedged to AUD Net Tax (Super) Index – has weightings much more representative of the asset class on both a geographic and sector basis

For example, the North American exposure is reduced from 82% to 65% and the exposure to transportation infrastructure (excluding railroads) increases from 3% to 23%.

“The adjusted APRA benchmark better facilitates a more balanced exposure to listed infrastructure, and should help encourage super funds to invest in listed infrastructure assets in Australia and overseas,” Mr Maple-Brown said.

“The need to outperform the existing benchmark has served to concentrate portfolios towards unlisted assets. In our opinion this was unnecessarily restricting super funds from being able to access the attractive benefits of listed infrastructure,” he said.

Steven Kempler, co-founder and portfolio manager, Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure, said the benchmark change is particularly pertinent given the significantly discounted valuations of listed infrastructure assets relative to private infrastructure assets.

“We believe listed infrastructure is trading materially cheaper than private infrastructure. We recently authored a white paper which explains the significant valuation gap between listed infrastructure and private infrastructure, and the implications for investors.

“The benchmark adjustment comes at an opportune time. It better facilitates super funds accessing quality infrastructure assets at relatively attractive prices, managed by high performing listed infrastructure managers, within which Australian managers are globally recognised as leading performers.

“The liquidity available to funds by having a portion of their infrastructure exposure allocated to liquid assets is particularly attractive. This has gained increased attention since the UK pension liquidity crisis in 2022,” Mr Kempler said.

Mr Maple-Brown said: “We believe the adjustment will have positive implications for asset allocators benchmarking within this asset class and ultimately all Australian superannuation holders that have an exposure to listed infrastructure. For these reasons we applaud the prompt action taken by Treasury which provides greater opportunities for super funds and their members.”

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[1] https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/stephen-jones-2022/media-releases/raising-bar-superannuation-performance-test-update-2023

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Andrew Maple-Brown

Asset managers investing in infrastructure companies have a role in managing the risk of greenwashing by continually engaging with company management and using their voting rights as shareholders, according to Andrew Maple-Brown, co-founder and managing director, Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure.

Encouraging company leaders to show their commitment to environmental, governance and social (ESG) outcomes by linking remuneration to those outcomes is an effective way to do this, Mr Maple-Brown says.

“Infrastructure plays a critical role in the sustainable future of the planet, and as an asset manager investing in these essential service assets, we believe we have a responsibility to ensure companies are taking action on their statements and plans around ESG.

“In the past 12 months as part of our engagement and proxy voting activities with companies, we have put increased emphasis on the alignment of short- and long-term executive remuneration with their sustainability commitments and decarbonisation targets.

“We have seen meaningful improvements on the previous year, with a notable shift in the level of detail and weights attributed to non-financial key performance indicators for some major infrastructure companies,” Mr Maple-Brown said.

In Q2 2022 alone, Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure voted against 31 per cent of executive remuneration reports and/or policies proposed by companies,^[1] namely:

• where there was a lack of proper alignment and accountability for environmental and social (E&S) performance relevant to the company’s business strategy and operations
• where there was a lack of proper disclosure of the E&S component in executive remuneration, for example, where key performance indicators were not laid out and/or weightings were not sufficiently detailed
• where there were discrepancies between the company’s key performance indicators and potential executive pay-outs (that is, there was a risk of ‘pay for failure’).

Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure is a signatory to the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, affirming its commitment to align its strategy with net zero emission by 2050 and has set an interim emissions target of a 50% reduction in emission intensity (relative to 2020 levels) by 2030 for the strategy. Out of concern around the lack of consistent and reliable climate change and emissions data, the GLI team recently made a formal comment to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US to voice support for the proposed rule change on mandatory climate-related financial disclosures.

On 29 June 2022, the Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure Fund (UCITS), which has investors based in Europe, North America and Africa, won the ‘Infrastructure Fund of the Year’ category in Environmental Finance’s Sustainable Investment Awards 2022. This category is open to all infrastructure funds – both listed and unlisted in both the debt and equity spaces – that have a focus on ESG and sustainability factors. The award reflects the efforts of the Global Listed Infrastructure team, based in Sydney, in ESG and sustainability research, reporting, engagement and proxy voting initiatives, which it applies across the GLI strategy.

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[1] A representative Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure fund has been used as a proxy for shareholder voting numbers and company engagements

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Georgia Hall

Global listed infrastructure companies will be key to helping the world reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, and many are achieving very strong results in reducing their emissions, says Andrew Maple-Brown, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure.

However, there are some that still have considerable work to do in order to achieve their ambitions, and the risk of greenwashing persists.

“For this reason, active investors have a crucial role to play in helping companies achieve their net zero ambitions, through engagement, scrutiny and constructive encouragement.

“While many companies have outlined some variation of a net zero target, there are notable inconsistencies between what is being said and what is actually being done.

“As investors, we believe it is vital to assess the financial impact of any targets as they can mean different things to different people, and any disconnect between claim and reality is a potential risk.

“We have found it is useful to have a degree of scepticism about the claims made, and to ask some tough questions of management in order to work out whether their statement of intent is authentic and achievable.”

Mr Maple-Brown says that as active investors, the intention isn’t to discourage companies from setting net-zero targets but to encourage and support them.

“We have a number of examples where we have worked closely with companies to better understand their targets and help them identify ways to achieve them.”

Georgia Hall, the Global listed Infrastructure team’s ESG Analyst, has found that these discussions are becoming much more welcome and fruitful.

“Even in the past 12 months, we have found that companies that were initially reticent to engage on certain topics – such as scope 3 emissions – are  now much more open and willing to take on more accountability. We’ve engaged with well over three-quarters of portfolio companies on emissions targets and decarbonisation.

“Nonetheless, one of the key challenges we continue to face is that there are no globally accepted and mandated standards for companies when setting net zero targets, which means many lack external and independent accreditation,” Ms Hall says.

Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure recently became a signatory to the Net Zero Asset Management Initiative which calls on managers to align investments with net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner to support global efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by mid-century.

Mr Maple-Brown says that by joining this initiative, Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure is formalising its commitment to managing climate change risks and opportunities, and influencing the pace of decarbonisation through active engagement.

“We recognise the role we have in facilitating the decarbonisation of our clients’ assets, and joining this initiative gives us access to global best practice tools and resources.”

Key areas that Maple-Brown Abbott looks at when engaging with companies include:

1. how aligned the target is with the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, time frames, and unit of measurement
2. what it covers and whether it includes all business operations, subsidiaries, and geographies – in addition, how valid the baseline year is
3. which emissions scopes are captured and whether the target is limited to CO2 or other greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane emissions
4. whether the real economy emissions are being managed downwards, and whether offset measures are heavily relied on and/or ‘emissions avoided’ are factored in
5. what accreditations or reporting frameworks are used
6. any track record of emissions reduction prior to targets being announced, and
7. how detailed the plan is, whether there is a meaningful interim target, and how accountable the management team is and how they are being incentivised.

“Overall, we believe that investing in the transition to a net zero economy, and managing climate-related risks, will deliver better long-term results for investors. And as active managers, we have the opportunity to engage with companies and help ensure they are achieving their net zero goals, thus boosting returns and better managing risk,” Mr Maple-Brown said.

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Georgia Hall has been appointed as ESG analyst and Gitendra Pradhananga has joined as senior research associate.  

Ms Hall is an ESG specialist with over ten years’ experience in financial services. She was most recently senior manager, ESG & Corporate Responsibility, at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.  Ms Hall has also worked at AMP Capital, Ironbark Asset Management based in Australia, and Wellington Management and Schroders, both of these in the UK. She is currently completing a Masters of Environmental & Human Rights Law LLM at the University of NSW and has completed a number of post-graduate industry courses on climate change risk, impact investing and sustainability including from the CFA Institute and the United Nations University. 

Mr Pradhananga joins the firm from Allan Gray Australia, where he was an investment analyst for over two years.  In addition, he has over seven years’ engineering experience. Mr Pradhananga holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honours), both from the University of NSW. 

Andrew Maple-Brown, co-founder and managing director of MBA GLI, said the appointments reflect the growth in the business as well as the increasing focus on ESG considerations. 

“ESG has always played an important role in the MBA GLI investment process and Georgia’s appointment will allow us to further expand our capabilities, reflecting the importance we believe that ESG factors have in long-dated assets like infrastructure.  

“Georgia will be working to enhance the MBA GLI investment process across our research team, increase our company engagement, manage ESG reporting and further develop ESG insights.  

“Gitendra’s appointment provides further support for our research and analysis of the transportation infrastructure sector, where he will work with co-founder and portfolio manager Steven Kempler in conducting detailed stock research.  His role will also further develop the depth and capability of our research team overall,” Mr Maple-Brown said.

The new roles follow the appointment of Emma Pringle who joined Maple-Brown Abbott earlier this month, providing maternity cover for Natasha McKean.  Ms Pringle will focus on ESG requirements within the Australian and Asian equities strategies, as well as the Maple-Brown Abbott’s overall ESG strategy including its obligations as a signatory of the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investing (UNPRI). 

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