This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
CENTURIA Capital has scored a major win in Sydney, offloading a B grade office building for $270.05 million after buying it four years ago for $91 million.
Centuria acquired the 10 Spring St property, known as Swire House, with a 20% vacancy and successfully repositioned the property and re-leasing in a firming rental market.
It has flipped the repositioned asset to Lendlease’s Australian Prime Property Fund (APPF) Commercial. As a result of the sale, investors in the Centuria fund have tripled their equity investment over four years in addition to receiving an average annual return of 8%.
The sale was managed by Savills Simon Fenn, Graeme Russell and Ben Azar in conjunction with Josh Cullen and Rick Butler of INC Real Estate.
The price is significantly above the original expectations of $220 million. The 17-storey building comprises 13,871 sqm of space and 53% of leases are up for renewal in the next 24 months.
Centuria is not the only player capitalising on Sydney’s booming office market. Last month GDI Property Group offloaded 66 Goulburn St to Singapore’s Ascendas Singbridge for $252 million after buying it only three years ago for $136 million.
Centuria Property Funds Limited (CPFL) will pocket net performance fee of $25.8 million from the sale, which will be distributed to its parent, Centuria Capital.
As a result, CNI’s FY18 forecasts on which its operating earnings per stapled security (EPS) guidance was based. Accordingly, CNI has revised its FY18 operating EPS guidance from 10.8 cents per stapled security to 16.5 -17.0 cents per stapled security.
Meanwhile Centuria also announced a management shuffle which will see Nick Collishaw depart from his role as CEO of listed funds.
Effective 1 October, Nick Collishaw and Roger Dobson will join the boards of CPFL and CPFL2 and Jason Huljich will retire from both boards. Both Collishaw and Huljich will continue to serve as CNI directors.
From 1 January 2018, Collishaw will resign as CEO of listed funds and transition to non-executive director and at the same time, Jason Huljich will assume the responsibility for the listed property funds division. He will be assisted by the existing senior executive team of Nicholas Blake and Ross Lees, fund managers of CMA and CIP respectively.
“Establishing and growing the Centuria REITs has been my prime focus since joining the Centuria team in 2013 and I am delighted to accept an invitation to sit on their controlling boards and to maintain my involvement with the business,” Collishaw said.
“The transitional strategy has been thoroughly planned and I am entirely comfortable with the arrangements we have made in relation to the ongoing operation of the Centuria REITs,” he added.
“The Centuria Group has a strong growth setting and it is vital that our governing boards contain individuals with deep industry experience and outstanding reputations,” Group CEO John McBain said. “I have known both Nick and Roger for over 20 years and not only do I respect them greatly, I believe they have these attributes in abundance. I am delighted with the appointments.”
Australian Property Journal
