AMP Capital has acquired a privately developed prison in Western Australia (WA) from a group led by Lend Lease.
The prison, known as the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison Redevelopment Project, cost AUD232m (€157.5m) to build.
The asset has been placed in the AMP Capital Community Infrastructure Fund (CommIF).
IPE Real Estate understands AMP Capital paid between AUD60m and AUD80m.
The deal is still subject to consent from the WA state government and financiers.
Lend Lease developed the public/private partnership project, completed at the end of 2015, for the WA state government.
The Assure Partners group, which includes Lend Lease and financial services company MLC, was the vendor.
It had a 25-year concession, excluding the construction period, to operate the 350-bed prison.
Andrea McElhinney, Community Infrastructure fund manager at AMP Capital, said offshore interest in Australian infrastructure had been a major theme of the local market over the last two years.
“Social infrastructure has not been immune to this, with the first offshore investor coming into CommIF this year,” she said.
“Social infrastructure provides investors with attractive returns characteristic of the broader infrastructure asset class. AMP Capital investors also like the fact its assets benefit the community.”
The latest acquisition has an attractive risk/return profile that fits perfectly with CommIF’s investment mandate, she added.
CommIF has investments in 13 social infrastructure assets in Australia and New Zealand worth approximately AUD8.2bn.
These include primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions and other assets in the health, justice, defence, water and community sectors.
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