David Di Pilla

With demand for healthcare assets trending in one direction, the surging alternative asset manager has launched its second unlisted institutional fund for the calendar year.

Investors and consultants are bending their efforts to find navigable paths around headwinds buffeting the commercial real estate sector.

HMC has invested heavily in the hope that after 30 years of disappointing shareholders, Lendlease can reinvent itself by shedding non-core assets and recycling capital into its large scale urban projects.

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.

Eighteen months ago, the fund started by former US banker David Di Pilla announced its target to achieve net-zero for scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by FY28. Alongside this came an energy road map and the first phase of its ‘Energy Management System’, which was subsequently rolled out across 18 sites.

David Di Pilla’s listed property group is shaking things up with a fund that combines the best features of private and public investing to create a pro-active management style equity fund.

Private equity may provide outsized returns, but it comes with a liquidity catch. Traditional listed equity investing doesn’t, but it has its own drawbacks. Combine the two, says HMC’s Victoria Hardie, and you have a better balance.

The listed property group formed by former star UBS banker David Di Pilla has gone from a standing start in 2015 to a retail and commercial investment force, with its latest acquisition pushing funds under management to $7.5 billion.

With some real asset trading at 20 to 30 per cent below their fundamental value, HMC’s David Di Pilla says there are “compelling” opportunities for managers that can spot value and raise capital.

In its latest sustainability report HMC details the kind of comprehensive ESG strategy typical of a fund manager that appreciates the value of corporate responsibility – both to the group’s three funds and the broader environment.