Australian property group Charter Hall has acquired a life sciences hub from Sonic Healthcare in Brisbane for A$445m (€271m) on behalf of a newly established institutional partnership and its funds.
The Charter Hall Social Infrastructure REIT (CQE) is investing A$53m of equity for a 25% stake in the asset located in Bowen Hills, with the remainder of the equity to be owned by other Charter Hall-managed funds and the new partnership.
The life science facility located is a national reference centre for highly specialised pathology testing and laboratory.
Charter Hall managing director and group CEO, David Harrison, said: “This acquisition is aligned with our strategy to invest in long weighted average lease expiry (WALE) essential service assets and provide the opportunity to multiple funds.
“With more than A$12bn of sale and leaseback, long WALE assets secured over many years, we see this new Sonic Healthcare relationship expanding our investment grade corporate relationships with excellent long term secure cash flows for our investor customers.“
Sonic Healthcare finance director and CFO, Chris Wilks, said: “This transaction is consistent with Sonic’s capital management strategy and focus on return on invested capital.
“It releases capital that can be deployed at higher returns, and crystallising increased value that was not reflected in Sonic’s financial statements.”
CBRE’s senior managing director Bruce Baker, who negotiated the deal jointly with Mark Granter, Peter Chapple, and Chris O’Brien, said: “Competition for the asset was strong with domestic and offshore groups chasing pure credit income.
“Investor interest in healthcare property opportunities had been rapidly increasing, amid projections that Australia’s healthcare and life sciences property sector could more than double in value by 2028 to A$12.1bn.”
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