This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
REAL estate investment manager Barings has spent $94.1 million on a Truganina industrial property from Charter Hall for as seed asset for a new partnership with superannuation fund Rest.
Sold from Charter Hall’s Core Logistics Partnership, 2-30 Saintly Drive in Truganina, around 18 west of the Melbourne CBD, comprises 46,933sqm GLA in warehousing.
The warehouses are primarily leased to Catch.com.au and Efflog Operations with a weighted average lease expiry of 2.4 years.
“The key characteristics which attracted us to this asset include the high-quality facility, strong holding income, positive supply and demand dynamic in the precinct, and attractive entry pricing,” said Neva Courts, director of Melbourne real estate at Barings.
“Our strategy is to focus on leasing initiatives to improve the income profile and targeted capex to expand the sustainable operations framework. This includes reducing all scopes of emissions and increasing access to renewable energy.”
Tony Iuliano from Cushman & Wakefield brokered the deal, with the asset selling in line with book value and with a passing yield of 4.7%
“Central to CLP’s strategy is delivering advanced industrial facilities and creating value for our investors,” said Simon Greig, fund manager at CLP.
“With a significant development pipeline in place, this sale enables us unlock capital that will be recycled into new opportunities for growth and drive greater returns for our investors.”
CLP plans to use the proceeds from the sale to redeploy capital into accretive investments, including development of existing land banks, such as Charter Hall’s first inner-city multi-level warehouse in Sydney known as Ascent on Bourke.
For Barings, the acquisition is the first seed asset for a new Barings and Rest industrial partnership seeking to procure a $1 billion-plus portfolio of value-add, core-plus, and develop to core industrial assets across Australia.
“We believe increasing exposure to the industrial property sector by leveraging Barings’ industrial expertise will benefit our members with the historically tight vacancy rates, sustained tenant demand, and strong long-term outlooks,” Andrew Lill, CIO at Rest.
“The industrial investments made through the venture will further diversify Rest’s property investments and improve investment outcomes for our members. Rest is excited to expand our relationship with Barings into the industrial property sector in Australia and generate investment opportunities like 2-30 Saintly Drive, Truganina.”
Through its acquisition of Altis, Barings has been investing in Australian real estate for 15 years and boasts more than $6.3 billion Australian real estate AUM, with more than 49 real estate investments and employing more than 44 professionals across the country.
“Barings is excited to complete the acquisition of a high-quality asset on behalf of the venture. Notwithstanding the current economic environment, we remain attracted to industrial real estate in Australia on a long-term basis. Our ambition is to continue to seek out both development and value-add opportunities across the major metropolitan markets of Australia,” said James King, director of investment management at Barings.
“Barings’ capability is able to capitalise on opportunities across the entire industrial and logistics risk spectrum of stabilised and value-add assets, short and long-dated developments, and geographies across Australia.”
