HMC Capital eyes $10b AUM by 2025 with new funds, new pipelines

David Di Pilla’s group made its bones flipping unloved real assets into a sprawling network of essential retail centres. Now HMC Capital is leaning into its public/private hybrid style of management and eyeing off investment in a host of sectors.

The term “listed property group” is somewhat of a legacy lable for HMC Capital, with the listed investment group founded by well-known manager David Di Pilla (pictured) forging ahead on the back of plans to expand its suite of unlisted alternative asset funds.

HMC’s roots can be tracked back to its wildly successful HomeCo Daily Needs REIT fund, which saw ex-UBS banker Di Pilla convert the old Woolworths Masters portfolio of real assets into a retail property group behemoth. Since inception in November 2020 at $800 million that fund is now a $4.8 billion portfolio of metropolitan retail and services assets.

The group’s other major pillar at inception, HealthCo Healthcare & Wellness REIT, is the only diversified healthcare REIT of its kind in the country, with primary medical and childcare among its core assets.

While these funds form the bedrock, HMC’s next big push for scale will come from unlisted private equity funds.

On August 31, 2022, HMC launched the HMC Capital Partners Fund with an initial $150 million internal stake. The fund focuses on “high conviction strategic stakes in businesses with real asset backing”, but with a twist; it combines the features of both private and public investing to create a pro-active management style equity fund, only investing in ASX/200 companies it believes it can genuinely improve.

That fund’s inception sparked the second act in HMC’s growth.

As noted in the group’s H1 2023 results presentation, “HMC Capital is evolving into a high [return on equity] alternative asset manager”, with plans to expand its equity asset management suite into opportunities in private credit, infrastructure and renewables.

The existing HMC Capital Partners Fund is set to expand distribution in the financial advice ranks and raise capital via con-investment, while the group is on the precipice of launching an unlisted real estate fund based on Last Mile Logistics (LML) investments, with a $500 million target first close equity raise close to being finalised. By 2025 HMC also intends to have a new $1 billion plus healthcare and life sciences unlisted fund founded.

All this, while acquisitions should push the group’s existing real asset portfolio should push the group over $10 billion in total assets under management by 2025.

Moving forward, HMC sees this growth being facilitated by a fertile investment landscape.

“We believe the investment environment is becoming more conducive,” the group noted in its results presentation. “HMC is well placed to take advantage of opportunities which are now emerging across its growing and more diversified platform.”