This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
IN yet another major industrial property leaseback agreement, LOGOS has acquired distribution centres in Sydney and Logan City for $172 million from healthcare company Sigma.
LOGOS made the purchase with the backing of TCorp, the New South Wales government’s financial management and investment arm. The partnership is focused on assembling a core logistics portfolio with assets in strategic locations across Australia.
The newly acquired properties are located in the logistics suburbs of Kemps Creek in western Sydney and Berrinba, south east of Brisbane.
Designed and purpose-built for Sigma in 2016 and 2019 respectively, they have a combined gross lettable area of 56,400 sqm and site area of about 9.8 hectares. The pharmaceutical provider has invested circa $60 million in automation and sustainability initiatives in the facilities, targeting a 4.5 Star Green Star Rating. Both include ambient temperature-controlled warehouses to accommodate Sigma’s specialist pharmaceutical products.
Sigma has entered into a 15-year lease agreement with two five year options to extend for each site. The first year lease cost just under $8 million annualised.
“The Sigma properties are an important addition to our customer relationships and are in line with our strategy, as the assets are directly linked to pharmaceutical fulfilment which has continued to perform and shown resilience, especially in the current market,” LOGOS head of Australia and New Zealand, Darren Searle said.
“LOGOS is focused on building a strong portfolio of modern, high-quality logistics assets that service the core logistics sectors of e-commerce, food and cold storage,” he said, adding the group has “strong confidence” in the pharmaceutical market and is looking to further expand into the sector over the coming years.
The Sigma properties adds to its existing holdings in Erskine Park, next to Kemps Creek, and Berrinba.
Well over $1 billion of sale and leaseback deals and offerings in the industrial sector have recently been in play. Centuria Industrial REIT has just claimed Telstra’s data centre complex in south east Melbourne for $416.7 million, while supermarket Aldi sold four distribution centres along the east coast for $648 million to a partnership between Charter Hall and Allianz, and Charter Hall also just entered into a $214 million portfolio sale and leaseback agreement with Owens-Illinois Australia.
Activity in Australia’s industrial market more broadly shows no sign of abating as institutional investors hunt for defensive assets. Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust last week sold its 50% stake in a Brisbane chilled facility to global real estate investment manager DWS for a cool $152.5 million, after the Dexus Australia Logistics Trust paid almost $270 million for five industrial assets in Melbourne and Sydney, and Dexus and Singapore’s GIC spent $173.5 million on two industrial properties, including a cold storage facility in Sydney.
LOGOS’ Asia Pacific portfolio comprises over 100 logistics assets and operations across nine countries with a completed value of approximately $13.8 billion. LOGOS counts some of the world’s largest fund managers as its shareholders, including ARA Asset Management, a leading Asia Pacific real assets fund manager with a global reach, which took a majority stake in the company in March 2020.
