Pengana to list AI-focused LIT on ASX

Pengana Capital Group is set to launch a listed investment trust (LIT) on the ASX centred on private companies specialising in AI. 

The LIT will focus on equities in private companies that are developing, enabling or contributing to the adoption of AI including foundation models, physical AI and AI applications. 

This reflects the desire by companies to remain private for longer and delay enacting an IPO which is making it harder for managers to find suitable investment opportunities in the listed markets. 

Alternative asset manager GCM Grosvenor will act as the investment manager, an ASX statement said, and is expected to be made available for wholesale and advised investors. 

The two firms have worked together since 2019 through the Pengana Private Equity Trust (PE1) where GCM is responsible for sourcing, assessing and managing private market investments on behalf of PE1 investors. 

PE1 currently consists of several AI-focused companies including Anthropic, OpenAI and Groq. It also holds a large stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX which is slated to enact a mega-IPO later this year. 

The proposed LIT intends to build on this collaboration by seeking to apply GCM Grosvenor’s existing investment platform, manager relationships and deal sourcing capabilities to a more targeted mandate focused specifically on private, non-publicly traded AI and AI-related opportunities, within a structure tailored to that strategy. 

So far, the listing is only at the proposal stage and will still be subject to completion of due diligence processes, preparation and lodgement of disclosure documentation, market conditions and investor demand and receipt of all necessary approvals. 

As well as this new launch, the firm is also undergoing a strategic review of its Pengana International Equities LIC. 

It had previously intended for the LIC to invest in a diversified portfolio of global private credit funds managed by top US and European private credit managers but this was rejected by its shareholders and it undertook a strategic review instead. 

Pengana said it is hopeful that a new agreement with fund manager Antipodes will “significantly improve” its investment management proposition and it should materially enhance long-term shareholder outcomes. 

Antipodes was founded in 2015 and has $9.4 billion in assets under management. Its Antipodes Global SMID strategy invests in global small and mid-cap companies with a market cap of US$1-30 billion.