This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
SOUTH Korea’s KRW 698 trillion (approx. AU$845bn) National Pension Service (NPS) and Germany’s Allianz SE have joined forces to launch a US$2.3 billion property fund targeting core office and logistics real estate in Australia, Singapore, China and Japan.
The new JV fund is targeting large cities across Asia and will also invest in residential real estate.
NPS chief investment officer and executive fund director Hyo-Joon Ahn said the strategic alliance is focussed on investments with long-term returns.
“By establishing partnerships with like-minded global leading groups, NPS will share various investment experiences and strengthen capabilities, as well as securing prime investment opportunities to increase long-term returns,”
Ahn said this latest fund is part of NPS’ strategy to diversify its global portfolio by focussing on Asian countries and emerging markets with high growth opportunities to complement its North America and Europe investments.
The world’s sixth largest pension fund is expected to deploy at least KRW 30 trillion (US$25 billion) in new investments by the end of this year.
NPS is no stranger down under and is always on the lookout for core commercial property investments, but in 2018 it missed out on buying Sydney’s Westpac Place for $721.9 million. The South Korean fund teamed up with another German, Deutche, but they lost to Mirvac.
The Korean group’s largest investment to date is the purchase of Aurora Place in Sydney, which it bought in 2009 for $685 million. Other purchases include a 50% in the $800 million Erina Fair shopping centre on the New South Wales Central Coast and a 50% stake in 13 industrial properties.
In February last year it sold the 595 Collins St Melbourne office building to Hong Kong’s Foo Hang (FHJ) Jewellery for $314 million after buying it nine years ago from US giant Pramerica Real Estate for $144 million.
This partnership will ramp up Allianz’s presence in Australia across different sectors. Late last year it acquired Urbanest, Australia’s largest owner of Purpose Built Student Accommodation and earlier this month it acquired four ALDI distribution centres for $648 million.
Demand from offshore investors in Australia’s industrial sector shows no sign of abating, last week Singapore’s ESR Cayman launched a $1 billion fund targeting prime logistics in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
ESR said COVID-19 has not slowed the appetite for high quality logistics, rather the pandemic will result in an e-commerce boom as consumers opt for online shopping. Earlier this month Goodman Group signed Amazon to a new fulfilment centre in Brisbane and Woolworths is investing up to $780 million to develop two, an automated and semi-auto centres, at Moorebank Logistics.
