Dexus launches $800m industrial partnership
Listed landlord Dexus launched a fresh industrial partnership, seeded with a portfolio of 10 eastern coast assets and with an end value of around $800 million, as it steps up its involvement in funds management.
Dexus will retain a 25 per cent ownership interest in the portfolio and manage the new partnership, moving assets from its balance sheet into the new vehicle.
With 10 logistics properties in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, the portfolio will comprise 174,000 square metres of industrial space, along with scope for further development. The portfolio generates income of $36 million, with more than half its footprint in Sydney.
The partnership opportunity – it is being brokered by JLL’s Tony Iuliano and Adrian Rowse – is a rare one, with only six industrial portfolios worth $700 million or more having traded so far.
Last year, global real estate investment group ESR, backed by GIC, bought Blackstone’s Milestone Logistics for a record $3.8 billion, while Blackstone itself subsequently struck a $2.1 billion deal to buy a half share in a prime logistics portfolio managed and jointly owned by Dexus.
The boom in appetite for industrial assets comes as Dexus – which already controls more than $11 billion of industrial property, along with a $2.5 billion logistics development pipeline – looks to accelerate its own efforts in fund management.
Led by Darren Steinberg, Dexus surprised the market last year with a $1.3 billion swoop on Perth’s Jandakot Airport and a surrounding logistics estate. But Dexus quickly moved to create a joint venture vehicle, with super fund Cbus the separately listed Dexus Industria REIT taking one third stakes in it.
This year Dexus super-charged its funds management ambitions, striking a historic deal to take over running AMP Capital’s $28 billion in real estate and local infrastructure assets, potentially doubling Dexus’ own funds under management.
