By Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Donald Trump’s looming tariffs may have stifled capital raisings on the ASX, but Geoff Wilson’s handsomely paid broker syndicate seems to be doing just fine while selling the LIC veteran’s latest launch.
Wilson Asset Management is understood to have a network of more than 130,000 investors.
Street Talk understands WAM Income Maximiser’s eight brokers had collected over $100 million worth of bids as of Sunday evening, after opening the books on March 12 with $30 million in commitments. Wilson has been powering through a roadshow and has until April 11 to hit the $510 million target spelled out in the prospectus.
That’s about $410 million and 19 days, by no means an easy feat, especially in the current environment where the expected impact of US tariffs on company earnings has spiked volatility at stockmarkets across the world and temporarily killed fundraising. The only exception has been gold miners and explorers.
Nevertheless, Wilson and his broker syndicate – who coincidentally opened books the same day that US tariffs pushed the ASX to its six-month low – have refined their pitch to emphasise the “all-weather” nature of the new LIC. WMX will hold a portfolio of dividend-paying ASX 300 stocks and bank debt – with the ability to move allocations between the two baskets depending on the investment environment. The ASX, for its part, has bounced back and ended last week as its best this year.
The target return is 2.5 per cent above the Reserve Bank’s cash rate, which totals 6 per cent including franking credits.
Wilson’s offering is the third fund to seek an entry to the ASX boards this year, and comes after MA Financial and Realm raised credit LITs in a rush to fill the gap created by the looming end of the $43 billion bank hybrid market.
Wilson Asset Management has 130,000-plus investors in its network, and has mandated Taylor Collison, Morgans Financial, Shaw and Partners, E&P Capital, Ord Minnett, Canaccord Genuity, Bell Potter and Commonwealth Securities.
Licensed by Copyright Agency. You must not copy this work without permission.
