Keppel REIT (K-REIT) and its Australian partner MA Financial have purchased a Sydney shopping mall from Blackstone for A$393.8m (€261.4m).
Singapore-listed K-REIT will hold a 75% interest in the 77,054sqm Top Ryde Shopping Centre, while MA Financial will own the remaining 25% and serve as the asset manager.
Blackstone paid A$341m for the development after it went into receivership in 2012. The asset manager went on to invest more than A$100m to complete the project which also has 650 apartments on the site.
Chua Hsien Yang, CEO of Keppel REIT Management, Keppel REIT’s manager, said: “The acquisition of Keppel REIT’s first pure-play retail asset marks a strategic expansion into the retail sector, which continues to offer attractive yields and strong growth potential.
“The diversification allows Keppel REIT to benefit from enhanced portfolio resilience as Australian retail malls offer attractive yields, with suburban retail assets demonstrating resilience and strong growth potential supported by long-term consumption growth and population increase.”
The transaction also marks MA Financial’s first major shopping centre purchase following the firm’s recent acquisition of specialist manager IP Generation.
MA Financials said the sale of a 100% interest in a Sydney metropolitan regional shopping centre is rare, with only two such centres transacting in the last 22 years.
Chris Lock, head of core real estate at MA Financial, said: “The social infrastructure characteristics of the shopping centre provides a defensive foundation for investor returns at a point of time that we believe the tailwinds for the real estate cycle are very favourable.”
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