Goldman Sachs and Propertylink have paid AUD145m (€100m) for an office building in Brisbane.
Malaysian investor, CIMB Trust Capital sold the State Law Building at 50 Ann Street in the city’s central business district.
Singapore-based CIMB TrustCapital counts the Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia among its investors.
The property is leased to the Queensland government until 2020.
The lease expiry is reflected in the deal’s 8.18% yield, which compares to the 4.6% yield for the Exchange Centre in Sydney, recently sold by Malaysia’s government retirement fund KWAP to a Hong Kong-based family office.
Propertylink’s head of property, Peter McDonald, told media this weekend that the asset provides opportunity to reposition and re-lease the building.
McDonald added that the deal provides the partners with an opportunity to acquire a higher quality asset in a commercial market showing signs of recovery.
He is predicting that Brisbane will experience a “strong turnaround in demand”.
Propertylink, which is buying the asset for its unlisted Propertylink Enhanced Partnership (PEP), has a 25% stake in this vehicle, alongside Goldman Sachs.
With the acquisition, PEP now owns assets valued at AUD239m.
Stuart Dawes, Propertylink’s chief executive, said Propertylink has expanded its relationship with Goldman Sachs, and, with the latest transaction, the partnership has lifted the value of transactions with Goldman Sachs to AUD1.2bn.
The US investment bank and the listed Propertylink formed a partnership in 2014 to invest in commercial and industry property. Of this, AUD725m is in office asset exposure and 76% is in Sydney.
