The acquisition of Maple-Brown Abbott (MBA) is expected to increase Antipodes Partners’ earnings and provide them with additional growth opportunities.

In mid-July, it was announced that fund manager MBA had finalized an agreement to be acquired by Antipodes Partners, an affiliate of Pinnacle Investment Management.

The size of the deal was not disclosed, but the combined firm will manage $18.6 billion in assets, split almost equally between the two firms.

Antipodes was founded in 2015. and manages global and emerging markets, while MBA was established in 1984 specializing in Australian equities as well as Asia-Pacific equities and multi-assets.

On a call announcing the firm's full-year results, Pinnacle managing director Ian McKoon was asked how the acquisition is expected to benefit Antipodes.

“Maple-Brown Abbott is attracted to Antipodes, they have put capital into it and Pinnacle has put in their proportionate share of the capital requirement. That's going to be a very nice incremental.”

Dan Longan, Chief Financial Officer of Pinnacle, added: “We think this is a deal that makes a lot of sense for Antipodes and we fully understand the rationale there. We think this gives them additional opportunities for future growth in asset classes that are quite complementary.

"But it's going to take some time for them to do the things they need to do to bring these businesses together before we see real significant revenue growth on top of that modest earnings growth."

During the financial year, Antipodes also acquired three Asia-focused retail funds that expanded its product portfolio. The firm now accounts for 8.5 percent of Pinnacle's total assets under management, making it Pinnacle's fifth-largest affiliate out of 15.

If the MBA deal goes through, MBA's global listed infrastructure, Australian value shares and Australian small company investment teams will operate autonomously under the MBA brand alongside Antipodes' existing global equity investment team.

MBA's global infrastructure investment opportunities will continue to be majority-owned by its investment team, led by Andrew Maple-Brown, Stephen Kempler and Justin Lannon, and will be managed as a separate entity.

There will be no staff changes in the MBA Australian value equities and MBA Australian small companies teams, who will report to Andrew Findlay, Managing Director and CEO of Antipodes.