20 December 2021: Wingate has today agreed to acquire CapStra in a move to further cement its position as Australia’s most experienced specialist property finance house.
The acquisition will help expand the Wingate platform across institutional capital and see CapStra’s team of property specialists become part of Wingate Property.
“We are delighted to welcome the outstanding capability of CapStra to Wingate,” said Farrel Meltzer, Wingate Founder and Group Managing Director. “The team’s deep experience across real estate financing, advisory and capital raising positions Wingate well to further strengthen our institutional capital base.”
“Wingate has an 18-year track record of delivering capital solutions to private property developers and owners, based on our deep relationships with both our co-investors and our counterparties. In both size and scale, Wingate has one of the largest and most experienced teams of its type in Australia – this acquisition is just the next chapter as that platform scales.”
As part of the acquisition, Nick Jacobson, current Managing Director of CapStra, will join current Wingate Property Head Mark Harrison as Managing Director. The acquisition comes at a time that the non-bank finance market matures for property developers.
“There is strong demand from private developers for alternate sources of funding,” said Mark Harrison, Managing Director of Wingate Property. “Developers are looking for flexibility and partnership in their approach – there is a compelling proposition for sophisticated developers to move away from traditional banking sources of finance.”
“The addition of CapStra to the Wingate Property Team means we strengthen our multidisciplinary capability – ranging from financing, deal origination, structuring, development expertise, credit underwriting and more, we have a strong specialist team of professionals who are focused on the Australian market and have the enhanced capacity to work on transactions beyond our current mandates.”
“This is a particularly powerful market offering at a time when construction levels and development projects are rebounding from lockdowns right across Australia.”
Nick Jacobson is a well-known property and finance expert with more than 30 years’ industry experience, with CapStra offering a full range of real estate credit solutions. Based in Sydney, the move will see CapStra and its team become an integral part of Wingate.
“I was attracted to join with Wingate due to the opportunity to strengthen both our platform and capability,” said Jacobson. “By combining our skills and experience together, scaling with a business such as Wingate brings great opportunity. Wingate has unmatched relationships with the private high net wealth individual base, and we can share our deep experience in working with institutional and capital markets audiences to amplify our impact.
“I’m excited to lead the property business alongside Mark Harrison into the next growth chapter.”
