Amber has operated in Australia for more than a decade but traditionally stuck to public private partnership (PPP) deals. Think, NSW’s Reliance Rail, Gold Coast Light Rail and Sydney’s The Royal Children’s Hospital.
Three Aussie deals in two years
However, it has ramped up core-plus infrastructure investing in past two years as Wallace, formerly Capella Capital’s head of origination, took charge as Amber’s Asia Pacific boss in 2020. The Aussie team’s other half, Evans, formerly worked in Morgan Stanley’s M&A advisory unit.
Tristan Evans, a former Morgan Stanley banker, is the other half of Amber’s Aussie dealmaking team.
The duo has made three investments since joining. It has stayed away from buying straight-up solar/wind farms, instead taking its picks from transportation and digital infrastructure assets.
In its biggest non-PPP deal in Australia so far, Amber teamed up with DIF Capital Partners to buy Anchorage Capital’s NSW rolling stock business Rail First Asset Management for $400 million to $500 million in September.
The same month, it paid $50 million-plus to buy South Australia data centre player YourDC as a bolt-on acquisition for Brisbane-based data centre operator iseek Communications, where it acquired a majority stake for $110 million in June 2021.
The inaugural Kiwi investment consists 11 schools across three PPPs including the Hobsonville Point primary and secondary schools, a correctional facility in Auckland where Amber would work on physical assets under a PPP (custodial services would remain with New Zealand Department of Corrections) and the student accommodation at the Auckland University of Technology.