Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (DWPF) has raised around A$340m (€215M) to help fund the further 25% interest in the MLC Centre office tower in Australia.
Last month Dexus and DWPF agreed with GPT Group to jointly buy the 50% interest in the 67-storey Sydney tower, which they do not own, for A$800m.
DWPF, which opened the fund for new investment to fund the acquisition of its 25% stake, has now raised around A$340m from existing and six new investors.
DWPF fund manager, Michael Sheffield, said: “DWPF has a strong track record of delivering on its investment objectives through selective acquisitions and divestments while achieving strong performance and maintaining the fund’s preferred gearing range.”
He told IPE Real Assets that, at any one time, there was a queue of investors seeking to get into DWPF. When the fund undertook a capital raise, these investors were offered the opportunity to subscribe.
Sheffield said the wholesale fund’s existing 65 investors were first offered the opportunity, based on their pre-emptive right, to increase their stake in the fund.
However, most were likely to have been overweight to DWPF because of its strong performance over the past year. The existing investors took A$100m among them.
DWPF, which managed assets valued at A$8.6bn at 31 December 2018, delivered a 13.75% return last year and has averaged 14.1% over the past three years – consistently outperforming the benchmark index for Australian wholesale funds.
Sheffield said the balance of the raising was offered to new parties and taken up by investors from the US, Switzerland and Japan.
He said discussions were continuing with potential investors for the remaining A$60m.
