Barings and Rest Super have acquired an industrial asset comprising two modern warehouses in southeastern Australia from a Charter Hall-managed fund for A$94.1m (€57m).

The acquisition of the fully leased asset in Truganina in Western Melbourne from the Core Logistics Partnership (CLP), is the first seed asset for a new industrial partnership between Barings and the Australian superannuation fund. CLP acquired the industrial property in 2015 for A$41.7m.

The partnership is seeking to procure a A$1bn-plus portfolio of value-add, core-plus, and develop-to-core industrial assets across Australia.

Andrew Lill, Rest’s chief investment officer at Rest said: “We believe increasing exposure to the industrial property sector by leveraging Barings’ industrial expertise will benefit our members with the historically tight vacancy rates, sustained tenant demand, and strong long-term outlooks.”

James King, director of investment management at Barings said: “Notwithstanding the current economic environment, we remain attracted to industrial real estate in Australia on a long-term basis. Our ambition is to continue to seek out both development and value-add opportunities across the major metropolitan markets of Australia.”

Neva Courts, director of real estate for Melbourne at Barings, said: “Our strategy is to focus on leasing initiatives to improve the income profile and targeted capex to expand the sustainable operations framework, including reducing all scopes of emissions and increasing access to renewable energy.”

Simon Greig, CLP fund manager, said: “With a significant development pipeline in place, this sale enables us unlock capital that will be recycled into new opportunities for growth and drive greater returns for our investors.”

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