The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) of Malaysia has invested A$100m (€63m) in Dexus Healthcare Wholesale Property Fund (HWPF), an Australian healthcare real estate fund.
The US$200bn (€178bn) Malaysian retirement fund serves both the private sector and non-pensionable public sector employees in that country.
Dexus executive general manager, funds management, Deborah Coakley said EPF’s commitment would enable HWPF to acquire the North Shore Health Hub, stage 1 of the development at a healthcare precinct in Artarmon on Sydney’s lower North Shore.
Stage 1 of the North Shore Health Hub is currently held in the Dexus trading portfolio. The facility has been designed to support existing infrastructure in the growing healthcare precinct and is due for completion in late-2020.
Dexus plans to eventually expand the precinct to include a “medi-hotel” and other amenities and expected to have an end value of A$1bn, to capitalise on its proximity to one of Sydney’s largest teaching hospitals.
It launched the open-ended unlisted healthcare property fund in 2017 in a joint venture with Adelaide-based developer Commercial & General. Its seed portfolio comprises approximately A$370m of properties.
EPF’s last commitment to Australia was made in 2017 when it entered into a joint venture with Malaysian industrial group OSK Holdings to develop a mixed-use project in central Melbourne.
The Malaysian national pension fund first entered Australia in 2012, investing in offices and logistics. It has also had taken profits along the way, selling some industrial and office assets.
