This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
Macquarie Goodman has set in motion a Hong Kong Wholesale fund to wrap up its $830 million worth of Hong Kong offices and industrial properties.
The move by Macquarie Goodman yesterday put an end to rumours earlier last month, that the group is looking to pull the plug on a third party property investment vehicle as a result of waning interests from investors.
However, there were no sign of nerves when Macquarie Goodman posted a net profit of $239.9 million for the six months to December 31, 2005 – 1759.7% higher than $12.9 million in December 2004.
In addition, Macquarie Goodman’s chief executive officer Gregory Goodman said the group will continue to acquire properties in Hong Kong in preparation for the establishment of a third party investment vehicle in the first half of 2006.
“Marketing of the proposed Macquarie Goodman Hong Kong Wholesale Fund has commenced.
The initial feedback from investors has been positive and the group remains confident that the fund will be launched in the coming months in line with expectations,” he added.
The past six months has seen Macquarie Goodman evolve into a truly international business with a presence in Australia, Asia and Europe.
“The past six months has been an exciting period for Macquarie Goodman. In Australia, we continued to organically grow our business through the roll out of our development pipeline and the introduction of a new wholesale fund. In Hong Kong, we are on target to launch a wholesale fund in the first half of 2006. Finally, we established a significant platform in Europe with the acquisition of a $17 billion funds management and property services business,” he said.
During the period, Macquarie Goodman successfully established the Macquarie Goodman Wholesale Fund in Australia with an initial portfolio totalling $1.0 billion, at the same time, recording continued growth in funds under management for the Singapore and New Zealand businesses with an increase of 59% and 160% respectively over the previous corresponding period.
The group also established a significant platform in Europe through the acquisition of Arlington Securities, taking the group’s business space assets under management to $16.0 billion and total assets under management to $26.2 billion.
As at December 31, 2005, Macquarie Goodman’s core portfolio in Australia consists of 92 warehouse/distribution centres, industrial estates, business parks and office parks with a value of $4.0 billion and houses 479 customers across 2.6 million sqm of lettable area producing a net annual rental of $21.6 million.
Over the past six months the existing portfolio continued to grow in value, with property revaluations providing an increase of $55.6 million over previous book values.
The property development division continued to perform strongly during the period, completing $419 million of new development product and committing a further $384 million of new projects across Macquarie Goodman’s platform.
In addition to Australia, Macquarie Goodman has undertaken in joint developments in New Zealand with NZ Stock Exchange listed Macquarie Goodman Property Trust at Savill Link and Westney Industry Park in Auckland. These 27 and 34 hectare development sites have significant levels of pre-commitments with strong demand continuing.
Macquarie Goodman also has a 75% interest in Highbrook Business Park, a 153 hectare greenfield development in East Tamaki, Auckland. The group has recently secured New Zealand Post on a 12 year lease, which is the third pre-commitment at Highbrook Business Park.
The group’s funds management business in Singapore, Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust bought $S399 million of new properties bringing Macquarie Goodman’s total assets under management in the region to $S2.7 billion.
A-REIT achieved a solid investment performance over the past six months providing unitholders with growth in distributions per unit of 29% compared to the previous half year.
Looking ahead, Goodman said the strong organic growth of the New Zealand and Singapore businesses will be maintained through a solid pipeline of acquisitions and developments.
“The group will increase its presence in the Hong Kong market through the establishment of MGHKWF and will continue to pursue new opportunities throughout this region.
“Macquarie Goodman is confident that it can maintain this positive momentum and looks forward to delivering continued strong returns to securityholders,” he added.
The group has declared distributions to securityholders for the six months of 13.75 cents per security and adjusted earnings of 12.92 cents per security, both in line with the forecasts.
By Adam Parsonspostamble();
