Link makes $1.13b office play
Oxford Properties Group has sold a 49.9 per cent stake in its $2.3 billion Investa Gateway Office venture to Link REIT.
The portfolio contains four Sydney CBD offices – Deutsche Bank Place at 126 Phillip Street, 388 George, Barrack Place at 151 Clarence (pictured, top) and 347 Kent.
It also includes the six year old 567 Collins St, in Melbourne.
Toronto based Oxford, the property arm of pension fund OMERS, will own the balance of IGO which will continue to be managed by Investa.
Link is headquartered in Hong Kong.
Link grows Australian portfolio
Link will sit alongside Oxford as a keystone IGO investor.
“IGO is one of the highest quality Australian office real estate portfolios to be offered to the market in recent years,” Link chief executive officer George Hongchoy said.
“The Australian economy has been highly resilient and the investment in one of its highest quality prime office portfolios provides immediate scale, positions us strongly for the next cycle and aligns with our Vision 2025 growth strategy of diversifying and improving our portfolio mix in the region,” he added.
With EG as its local fund manager, Link made its maiden investment outside of China in early 2020 with the $683 million purchase of Sydney’s 100 Market St office (story continues below).
Late last year the group snared a half interest in three major Sydney shopping centres – the Queen Victoria Building, The Galeries and Strand Arcade – from GIC for $538.2m.
Oxford to tip proceeds into offices, BTR
Oxford will redeploy capital into its office develop-to-core pipeline and BTR projects, including in Sydney and Melbourne.
“Following on from the recent investment by Mitsubishi Estate into our Parkline Place project, today’s transaction further demonstrates the continued global institutional demand for prime and highly sustainable office product,” Oxford head of Australia, Alec Harper, said.
“The deal demonstrates Oxford’s and Investa’s ability to attract partner capital and crystallises the value created by each of our teams,” he added.
CBRE’s Greg Hyland, Stuart McCann and Flint Davidson represented Link, which will make an initial $586m equity investment and hold a stake worth $1.13b.
Settlement is scheduled in the first half of this year.
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