Partners Group and Logos exit their first Australian joint investment

Partners Group and Logos have exited their first joint logistics investment in Australia, yielding total proceeds of AUD129m (€81m).

The last lot of industrial land at their Yennora site in Sydney’s West has just been sold for AUD49m.

Darren Searle, head of Australia and New Zealand at Logos, told IPE Real Assets that the site was developed in three stages over four years under a strategy of subdividing and adding value to the land.

Logos and Partners Group acquired the 32 hectare englobo property in a sale-and-leaseback transaction in 2015 for AUD47m.

Bastian Wolff, managing director and head of Asia-Pacific private real estate at Partners Group, said: “We are extremely pleased with the outcome for Yennora, which has been a very successful investment for our clients.

“The project has demonstrated Partners Group’s strategy of acquiring a large, infill logistics site, well-positioned to benefit from strong local demand and generating solid returns through value creation.”

Acquisition of the site marked Partners Group’s entry into the logistics/industrial sector in Australia. Since then, the Zug-based private markets investment manager and Logos have made two other investments, in Brisbane and on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

These sites are at various stages of development. Industry sources told IPE Real Assets that the end value of the projects could be AUD300m, pointing to the strategic value of a major site at the Port of Brisbane.

Searle said work was under way at the Port of Brisbane site, with Partners Group and Logos “capturing a couple of value-add opportunities” there.

On the Gold Coast, he said, the joint venture was leasing space to tenants, and developing an AUD40m facility for the pan-Asian logistics operator, Toll.

Toll had pre-committed to the 10,250sqm development which would become its regional logistics facility, located at the Gold Coast Logistics Hub in Queensland’s south-eastern corner.