HMC Capital has acquired two suburban shopping centres from the Lendlease Sub-Regional Retail Fund for a combined value of A$242.5m (€155m).
The biggest of the centres is the A$150m Menai Marketplace asset, located in Sydney’s West, which has been acquired to seed the new HMC Last Mile Logistics (LML) Fund.
HMC Capital said the strategic location, tenancy mix, short leases and low site coverage of 32% made the centre well-suited to the LML Fund strategy, which is targetting core-plus returns from repositioning well-located and strategic real estate into daily needs retailer-focussed infrastructure.
Separately, the related HMC Daily Needs (HDN) REIT has bought the Southlands Boulevarde asset in Western Australia for A$92.5m.
HMC Capital also announced that the LML Fund had received a combined commitment of A$92m from supermarket chain Woolworths and the listed HDN REIT.
The company said the fund was on track for a target of its first close equity raising of A$500m in the first half of next year. The equity would provide up to A$1bn of acquisition funding capacity.
HMC Capital CEO and managing director David Di Pilla said the fund represented the first of what was expected to be a series of funds which HMC Capital believed could over time grow into a multi-billion-dollar strategy.
“Importantly, this initiative will further diversify HMC Capital’s sources of capital and is consistent with our strategy to create a more sophisticated and diversified business which can thrive in both stable and volatile market environments,” he said.
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