AMP Capital Brookfield is committed to a centralised portfolio-management model in Chicago and at this time has opted not to fill Mr. Ward’s role. Instead, his portfolio and team management responsibilities will be shared between global portfolio managers Jason Baine and Bernhard Krieg. Both are experienced investors in European markets and the strategy is operated under a collegial decision-making approach ensuring familiarity across regions. 

“We view Brett Ward’s departure as significant since he was a long-serving and key member of the business. He’s an experienced global investor and provided important cultural leadership for the broader team. He established the European research team and made an important contribution toward integrating the global research capability,” said S&P Fund Services analyst Kelly Napier. 

Despite Mr Ward’s departure, the investment team is still one of the largest and most impressive in the rated peer group and the global property capability is a high quality offering with an established track record. The strategy benefits from a centrally coordinated top-down and regionally implemented bottom-up investment process and a strong and experienced team.

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The fund is managed by Australian Unity Property Ltd. and is a core diversified property fund investing in direct property assets, unlisted property funds, and listed property securities. Investors in the fund need to be comfortable with the fund’s moderate-to-high risk profile and should have a long-term investment horizon due to the fund’s relatively illiquid nature. 

The fund continues to be managed by Alex Fisher with support from a large and experienced investment team, including a highly experienced direct property management team. There have been significant improvements in the direct property portfolio since our last review. Income risk was substantially lowered through increased portfolio occupancy, a meaningful extension in the weighted average lease expiry, and attractive lease terms. The solid performance of the direct property portfolio is testament to the quality of the in-house direct property team, specifically Peter Lambden and Tim Kemp-Bishop.  

The most significant risk we see is the limited flexibility to effect asset allocation changes and shift the portfolio toward the neutral asset allocation. The fund has experienced net outflows over the past year and moved further from neutral. There are some upcoming liquidity events but we believe that the managing of fund flows and portfolio rebalancing are likely to remain competing objectives requiring careful management. 

“Despite the identified risks, we are comfortable that the quality of the underlying investments, the quality of the team, competitive fees, and the simple investment structure mean the fund is well placed to meet its objectives,” said S&P Fund Services analyst, Kelly Napier.

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