US-headquartered global real estate investment firm Heitman LLC has successfully sold a 50% stake in a portfolio of 20 prime industrial properties in Australia on behalf of its client, the National Pension Service of Korea (NPS).
The announcement said the stake sold for A$560 million (about $366 million). The Korean pension fund bought the half stake in the prime industrial assets via Heitman in 2012 for A$149 million.
The buyer was not identified in the announcement but the Korea Economic Daily reported that UniSuper, a major retirement pension in Australia, acquired the stake.
The portfolio consists of 20 logistics centres, including 12 assets in Sydney and eight in Melbourne, with a total floor area of 340,000 square meters. The majority of these properties were developed by local partner Dexus.
NPS said the warehouses are leased by high-quality tenants like Carlton & United Breweries, Coles Supermarket, industrial packaging company Visy and industrial and safety products supplier Blackwoods.
“We are extremely pleased by our successful transaction of these prime logistics portfolios in Australia and grateful for the strong asset performances managed by our longstanding partners,” said NPS Real Estate, Singapore, portfolio manager Steve Seunghyun Lee.
Lee added that NPS will continue to stay committed to the Australian real estate market as it sees interesting investment opportunities derived from market volatilities.
Last year, the NPS suffered a record 8.28% loss in assets as global stock and bond markets tumbled, most of which it recovered by the first quarter of this year with a 6.35% gain.
The NPS held a total of 953.2 trillion won ($727.90 billion) in assets at the end of March, 48.7% of which was held overseas. It plans to continuously expand its investment in foreign assets.
Heitman, on the other hand, was founded in 1966 and now manages approximately $52 billion in assets. It started to explore private equity investments in Asia in 2008.
The firm’s real estate investment strategies include direct investments in the equity or debt capitalization of a property or in the securities of listed and publicly traded real estate companies.