Australian industry superannuation fund HESTA has mandated fund manager ISPT to establish a A$200m (€123m) healthcare fund, which could be scaled up in line with future opportunities in the sector.
HESTA CEO, Debby Blakey, said: “We are actively looking for investment opportunities as Australia’s ageing population will see the need for significant expansion in services and facilities in coming years.”
Blakey said the structure of the mandate gave HESTA the option to grow its commitment over time.
The fund would focus on private hospitals, and on general medical and residential aged care identified as potential attractive investment opportunities.
HESTA CIO, Sonya Sawtell-Rickson, said the focus on healthcare and aged care property would provide diversification for the broader HESTA property portfolio.
“Healthcare and aged care property assets are not as exposed to the economic cycle as other types of large-scale commercial or retail property investments we have in the portfolio,” Sawtell-Rickson said.
The HESTA investment team, in partnership with ISPT, will seek investment in metropolitan and regional city locations over a broad range of deal structures.
This could include sale and leaseback arrangements, asset co-ownership, capital partnering on brownfield developments or greenfield asset expansions.
HESTA was a co-founder of ISPT and, in addition to this latest mandate, is invested across the ISPT platform of property trusts.
