QIC’s Australian convenience and community shopping centre fund has secured backing from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and Prime Super.
Australian green bank and local pension fund Prime Super have invested unspecified amounts in QIC’s rebranded QIC Everyday Retail Fund (QERF), a fund which holds A$525m (€294m) worth of assets.
The fund, which currently owns six sub-regional and convenience centres across south-east Queensland and Sydney’s Northern Beaches, expects to grow the portfolio to A$1.5bn.
Michael McQueen, general manager, investments at Prime Super, said the investment provided members with exposure to high-quality, community-focused retail centres that offered both defensive income and value-add potential.
Michael Di Russo, head of property, CEFC, said: “Through this investment, CEFC capital is supporting the drive for deeper carbon reductions across a portfolio of assets that typically have a maturity gap compared to larger regional centres.”
Deborah Coakley, QIC Real Estate MD, said a recent recapitalisation positioned the Everyday Retail Fund for its next phase of growth aligned with investor appetite and favourable market conditions.
“The support of CEFC and Prime Super in validating this strategy has allowed QIC to recapitalise the fund and be in a strong position to re-enter the market and execute a high-quality growth pipeline of acquisition opportunities.”
Coakley added that the vehicle had consistently outperformed its “benchmark through economic cycles, and sharpening its focus on everyday retail allows us to leverage the current market dynamic”.
She said to support this growth agenda, QERF would divest a number of industrial assets over the coming months, with proceeds to be reinvested into new convenience retail opportunities aligned with the fund’s strategy.
Charles Occhino, QIC real estate core-plus strategies fund manager, said: “For the last 25 years, every day retail centres have achieved both the highest productivity growth and speciality rent growth per square metre across all shopping centre sub-classes.”
“We know existing everyday convenience stock has traditionally lagged in sustainability ambition and performance, and the smaller scale of QERF assets allows us to drive change that is often harder to achieve in larger real estate holdings.”
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