HMC Capital wins $1.3bn private credit insto mandate

HMC Capital has won two global institutional mandates of $1.35 billion for its private credit strategy in Australian commercial real estate (CRE) lending.

The ASX-listed alternatives asset manager has already received $375 million of seed assets.

On full deployment, HMC's private credit strategy's assets under management is expected to rise to $3.3 billion and will provide dry powder of $1 billion for investment in FY27, it said.

HMC Capital said it is now positioned to originate significantly larger loan opportunities for institutional investors and grow its market share. It added the mandates will expand available funding capacity, support growth in fee-earning assets under management and recurring funds management earnings.

"Introducing institutional capital is a major step in building a larger and more diversified private credit platform that can capitalise on Australia's growing CRE private credit market opportunity," HMC Capital chief executive and managing director David Di Pilla said.

"Today's announcement reflects the significant investment we have made over the past two years to establish an institutional grade platform, with more than 70 investment professionals providing deep in-house capability and market leading governance."

HMC recently also partnered with global private equity firm KKR to receive $603 million for the HMC Energy Transition Platform. Just last week, the partnership received a good to go by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The commitment will last seven years and is expected to generate a 14% annual return. It will be split via a preferred equity investment in HMC's Energy Transition Platform comprising an initial $355 million tranche at financial close.

HMC Energy Platform will be rebranded and operate under the name Illuma Energy which comprises a portfolio of renewable energy and storage infrastructure, including 652MW of installed wind, solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity.

The next tranche's $248 million will fund 90% of the equity component of construction costs of the platform's first BESS development project.