Frank Lowy joins rich-listers’ rush to Updater their portfolios
Westfield founder Sir Frank Lowy. Picture: Brett Costello
Billionaire shopping centre magnate Sir Frank Lowy has become the latest rich-lister to take a big stake in the soon to be delisted Updater, documents lodged late yesterday afternoon show.
Penpol was one of several Lowy family investment vehicles to emerge with a 9.33 per cent stake in Updater, a substantial shareholder document lodged by the company shows.
Sir Frank joins the likes of billionaire investor Alex Waislitz and Navitas co-founder Rod Jones on the Updater register, along with young rich-lister and co-founder Grant Schaffer and director and former Domain boss Antony Catalano.
Updater surprised the market in mid-August when it announced it wanted to delist from the Australian Securities Exchange to pursue funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalist and investment funds in the hope of being valued on a higher basis as a private company than a public one listed in Australia.
The company, which has risen about six times in value since its December 2015 ASX float, is based in New York and provides services to people in the US to update their details with utilities and other householder services when they move house.
Mr Waislitz had told
The Australian he believed Updater’s value could surge as a private company in the US and potentially achieve the “unicorn” status of having a valuation of $US1 billion or higher. Updater’s current market capitalisation is about $630 million.
A shareholder vote rubber-stamped the move on September 7.
“We welcome current shareholders who wish to remain an investor in the private entity to participate in the potential future upside and growth of our business,” Updater chief executive David Greenberg said on the day.
Updater will delist from the ASX on October 10, and its wealthy shareholders have been buying up stock in the meantime. Hoperidge Capital, the family investment office owned by Mr Jones, emerged with a 5.04 per cent stake on September 7, while Mr Waislitz’s Thorney Investments also has a holding of more than 5 per cent.
Each intends to keep their shares after Updater is delisted.
Sir Frank’s other ASX-listed stock is OneMarket, chaired by son Steven Lowy. OneMarket was Westfield’s retail technology platform and was once known as Westfield Retail Solutions.
It was spun out as a separate company after the December announcement of the sale of the Westfield shopping centre giant Sir Frank co-founded to French company Unibail-Rodamco in a blockbuster $33bn deal. OneMarket shares have fallen about 28 per cent since its late May listing. The Lowy family’s shares in the Australasian shopping centre-focused Scentre Group are down about 1 per cent in 12 months.
After the Unibail-Rodamco sale was finalised in late May, most of the Lowys’ assets are held in the private Lowy Family Group, which has much of its investments held in property and equities overseas, with the firm having offices in Sydney and New York.
While it has its assets spread across several vehicles across the world, filings with the corporate regulator in Australia last year revealed one LFG entity alone has gross assets of $1.6bn.
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