Singaporean trust in $418m logistics swoop

The Brisbane acquisitions comprise four Port of Brisbane properties including a cold storage development project for meat wholesaler Teys, and a distribution centre in Larapinta in Brisbane’s south.

The Singaporean trust will also acquire a 49.5 per cent interest in the Logos-managed New LAIVS fund and a 40 per cent interest in the Logos-managed Oxford Property Fund for $S178.5 million.

Combined the two funds own almost $800 million of logistics facilities, including a major Woolworths distribution centre in western Sydney, bought by Logos last year for $161 million, and one of Melbourne’s biggest refrigerated industrial estates in Laverton North, leased to Oxford Cold Storage and valued at $332 million.

The deal follows a number of big portfolio sales this year amid a wave of capital pouring into prime industrial property, driven to a large extent by the e-commerce boom.

Other notable portfolio deals struck this year include Charter Hall and global investor Allianz Real Estate acquiring four Aldi distribution centres for $648 million and Charter Hall acquiring a $215 million portfolio of glass bottle factories leased back to Owens-Illinois Australia.

In explaining its rationale for the deal, the trust’s manager ARA Logos Logistics Trust Management Limited (a subsidiary of Logos) said the “Australian industrial and logistics market, especially the eastern seaboard cities, continues to be highly sought after by investors due to its strong market fundamentals, limited supply and favourable demographics”.

“Industrial and logistics investment volumes for the year-to-date ending August 2020 have exceeded $3.5 billion … and 83 per cent of these transactions had taken place during the COVID-19 period since mid-March.

“The outlook for Australia’s industrial market remains stable over the long term, underpinned by the fundamental role of logistics in keeping basic day-to-day necessities of Australians in supply, unprecedented infrastructure investment and growth in defensive downstream industries such as e-commerce.”

Logos, which manages a $13.8 billion portfolio, is majority owned by Singaporean funds giant ARA, alongside Canadian real estate fund manager Ivanhoe Cambridge and the platform’s founders, John Marsh and Trent Iliffe.

The ARA Logos Logistics Trust deal, which requires the approval of the trust’s unitholders, will be funded through a $S188.6 million equity raising supported by Ivanhoe Cambridge, Logos and other investors as well as bank debt.

It will deliver a fee bonanza of more than $11.5 million to Logos, to be paid through the issue of new units in the trust.