This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
HABEN has again teamed up with Hong Kong’s JY Group Pty Ltd, with the property investor entering into a $270 million deal to buy the Forest Hill Chase shopping centre in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs from private equity giant Blackstone.
Haben is taping investors for $91 million to help fund the deal. The raising is for the Haben Forest Hill Trust, according to the Financial Review, which would hold the manager’s half share of the centre and be overseen by its team.
The fund is targeting a 13.75% internal rate of return and the fund would have an initial five-year term and pay quarterly distributions. Distributions are forecast at 6% annually, increasing to 8% after some repositioning of the asset. The site has 50,000 sqm of developable gross floor area.
Anchored by Coles, Woolworths, Target, Hoyts, Harris Scarfe and Aldi, the centre is expected to hit $26 million in net operating income for the 2024 financial year.
Haben will own the shopping centre alongside JY Group. Last year, the pair acquired Casey Central in Melbourne’s outer south east for $225 million, and went on to buy Wollongong Central from GPT for more than $400 million.
JY Group, meanwhile, has also just acquired a 50% stake in Sydney’s 33,298 sqm Carlingford Court shopping centre, for $120.5 million, that it will own alongside Vicinity Centres. It also co-owned Roseland Shopping Centre in Sydney’s south west with Vicinity following a $167 million deal a year ago.
After a string of major deals in 2021, the $10 billion in retail sales across the country over the first nine months of the year came in at 18% lower in annual terms, according to MSCI.
