Sydney-based land lease community operator, Ingenia Communities Group, is to acquire 100% of Peet, a Western Australian company, to create the country’s largest lifestyle land lease company in a deal valuing Peet at close to A$1bn (€616m).
Ingenia, which counts Australian Retirement Trust and Cohen & Steers as its major shareholders, said the deal would significantly increase the company’s strategic development pipeline in key growth corridors.
The combined platform will boost market capitalisation to A$2.4bn – a book value of around A$3.7bn and a residential lot pipeline of 35,200 lots by combing Peet’s 26,000-lot pipeline with Ingenia’s 8,000 lots.
Ingenia CEO John Carfi said the transaction represented a unique opportunity to acquire an extensive, high-quality development pipeline and established operating platform on attractive terms.
“The transaction delivers on our core strategic goals, increasing our scale and exposure to land lease development, creating a national platform, accelerating and securing growth beyond our five-year plan, as well as delivering a logical extension to our living strategy that responds to the evolution of the residential sector,” Carfi said.
“Following the transaction, Ingenia is strongly positioned to deliver into Australia’s structural housing undersupply for the next 10-plus years, creating land lease communities satisfying the demands for an ageing population, coupled with predominantly owner-occupied masterplan communities in growth corridors,” he added.
Carfi said the transaction secured a substantial land lease conversion opportunity with a potential end value of A$1bn alongside complementary housing supply via Peet’s established land development pipeline.
Ingenia’s chairman Shane Gannon said the acquisition was underpinned by structural housing undersupply across Australia.
Peet’s chairman Greg Wall said the board fully supported the deal. “The combination with Ingenia brings together two highly complementary portfolios and provides our shareholders with both immediate cash certainty and the option to remain invested in a leading living sector platform.”
To part-fund the transaction, Ingenia has agreed to sell a 49.9% stake in Peet’s Flagstone City project in Brisbane to Brown-Neaves Investment at an enterprise value of A$615m.
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