Dexus and its wholesale property fund have agreed with GPT Group to jointly buy the 50% interest in the MLC Centre office tower in Australia, which they do not own, for A$800m (€502.3m).
The listed property firm and Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (DWPF) will have an additional 25% each in the 67-storey Sydney asset, giving a 50% stake each in the entire building on settlement.
They jointly bought the initial 50% stake in the building in 2017 from QIC Global Real Estate for A$722.5m.
That transaction gave Dexus preemptive rights to buy the remaining half should GPT decide to sell.
Australian real estate investment trust GPT put its 50% stake up for sale in January, as it sought to recycle capital to fund its pipeline of development projects.
Darren Steinberg, Dexus CEO said there was strong support from its unlisted capital partners for DWPF to be able to participate in the transaction.
He said that the group was looking forward to extracting further value for investors through redevelopment of the ground level retail component.
Dexus said it would fund its share of the acquisition through debt, and would concurrently launch a fully underwritten offering of A$425m guaranteed exchangeable notes.
