institution

National 

Lend Lease to Acquire Balance of Lend Lease Primelife Group

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Lend Lease today announced a bid to acquire almost 57 per cent of the Lend Lease Primelife Group.
A copy of the announcement is below:

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Lend Lease Corporation (“Lend Lease”) today announced that it has entered into a Scheme Implementation Agreement (“SIA”) with Lend Lease Primelife Group (“Primelife”) under which Lend Lease will acquire all of the securities it does not already own in Primelife for A$0.31 per security. Lend Lease currently owns 43.2% of the securities in, and is the manager of, Primelife.

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National 

Stockland to Double Retirement Portfolio, Appoints New Head

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SYDNEY-based developer Stockland is continuing to ramp up its potentially lucrative retirement living division, appointing former management consultant David Pitman to the new role of group strategy head.

Mr Pitman said he wants to double the group’s retirement portfolio to about 8,000 units over the next five to six years, which would boost department earnings from the current 7 per cent it contributes to Stockland’s total coffers.

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National 

Trinity Offloads $51m In Offices

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QUEENSLAND-based property group Trinity has offloaded three commercial office buildings for more than $51 million.

The sales include Brisbane’s 410 Queen Street which sold to a private investor for $23.8 million, and a small wharf building which sold for $5.26 million. Trinity also offloaded an office building in King William Street Adelaide for $21.75 million.

Trinity announced to the ASX earlier this week it recorded a $225 million loss with $46 million attributed to devaluations.

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New South Wales 

Valad Sells St Leonards Office Building at a Discount, For $19 Million

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VALAD Property Group has recorded a huge loss from the sale of a seven-level office building on Sydney’s North Shore.

The 39 – 41 Chandos Street office sold to fund manager Markham Corp for $19.05 million in September, after previously being valued this year at $20.9 million.

Valad paid just over $24 million for the office in late 2007.

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Michael Cameron
National 

GPT May Split Oz and European Assets, as Part of New Strategy

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Michael CameronTHE giant GPT Group is understood to be entertaining a plan to split its commercial property assets into two separate vehicles, designed to make the group look more appealing to investors, and improve the group’s negotiation position with banks.

The proposal will see Australian owned office towers and shopping centres managed by one fund, and a swag of “toxic” European assets (owned with failed investment group Babcock & Brown), managed by another fund.

The decision follows capital raisings to the tune of more than $1.7 billion, since GPT’s new chief executive and former banker Michael Cameron took the helm on May 1. In total the group has raised about $3.3 billion in the past 18 months.

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New South Wales 

GPT Sells Four Points by Sheraton For $185 Million

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AN as yet undisclosed south-east Asian investor has paid $185 million for GPT’s unrenovated ‘Four Points by Sheraton’ hotel, in Sydney.

The hotel sold at a 10 per cent discount to its June 2009 valuation of $206 million. In December last year it was valued at $236 million.

Based on the asset’s current annual rent, the hotel sold on a yield of 8.8 per cent.

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New South Wales 

Sydney’s Lane Cove Tunnel For Sale at $600 Million

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THE high profile owners of Sydney’s Lane Cove Tunnel are preparing to sell the asset for around $1 billion less than what it cost to build.

ABN Amro’s Diversified Infrastructure Trust, Leighton Holdings, Mirvac, REST and Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing are amongst the owners of the 3.6 kilometre tunnel, which is expected to sell for about $600 million.

The asset will generate an income until 2037.

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National 

Macquarie Leisure Trust Sells $11 Million in Assets

Macquarie Leisure Trust Group (ASX:  MLE) announced today that contracts for the sale and leaseback of AMF properties at Frankston, Woodville and Norwood, with total proceeds of $11.1 million, are now unconditional and are expected to settle in July 2009.

MLE also announced that as part of its intra group funding arrangements, a wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Leisure Operations Limited has issued Exchangeable Notes to Macquarie Leisure Trust to repay inter-company loans totalling $32.5 million.

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National 

Charter Hall Offloads Almost $170 Million in Assets

SYDNEY-based fund manager and developer Charter Hall is continuing its selling spree, offloading $170 million of office and industrial property this week.

The Core Plus Office Fund has made $60.2 million from the sale of the Victorian College of Pharmacy building at Monash University, which sold to an overseas investment group.

Other sales including Bunnings stores and a Harvey Norman, are detailed in the Charter Hall announcement below:

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242 Exhibition Street
National 

Investa to sell Two CBD Offices Worth $600 Million

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242 Exhibition Street
UNLISTED property giant Investa has put up for sale two more CBD office buildings for sale, one in each of Sydney and Melbourne.

In Sydney, the group will sell a 32-level office building at 312 – 322 Pitt Street. The 29,159 square metre, A-grade building includes 29 levels of offices, ground floor retail and a shared loading dock with a neighbouring building.

The Pitt Street building is expected to sell for about $200 million.

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New South Wales 

Sydney’s Landmark Aurora Tower Expected to Fetch $700 Million

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SYDNEY’s landmark Aurora Place office building has been listed for sale and is expected to sell for about $700 million.

The 41-level tower, built in 2001 on a former State Office Block at 88 Phillip Street, is owned by the Commonwealth Property Investment Trust, a Colonial First State wholesale fund. The largest tenants in the premium quality, 49,730 square metre building include the Royal Bank of Scotland, which also leases naming rights, and Minter Ellison.

The building was sold to CPIT by developers Lend Lease and its partner East Asia Property Group for $485 million in February 2001.

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National 

GPT Completes Entitlement Offer

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The GPT Group (“GPT”) is pleased to confirm the allotment of 718,294,466 stapled securities under the Retail Entitlement Offer today.

The Retail Entitlement Offer Shortfall was approximately 210 million stapled securities (or approximately $73 million), comprising 4.7% of the offer as a whole. All Retail Securityholders who applied for Additional New Securities, up to a cap of 25% of their entitlement, received the Additional New Securities they applied for, raising a total of approximately $27 million. Trading of these new securities will commence on 17 June 2009. The Retail Entitlement Offer which comprises both the New Securities allotted today and those allotted on 27 May 2009 raised approximately $300 million. The total number of stapled securities on offer following completion of the equity raising will be 9,277,584,743.

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New South Wales 

Orchard Puts 233 Castlereagh Street on the Market

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MONTHS after listing its 350 Collins Street office for sale in Melbourne, Orchard Funds Management has put a Sydney CBD building on the market, in a deal which could be worth $130 million.

Orchard is selling its 31-level 233 Castlereagh Street building in Sydney, three years after buying it for $120 million with joint venture partners Leighton Properties and Lend Lease Real Estate. The office building is now 95 per cent occupied, returning about $9 million per annum. This compares to 40 per cent when the consortium bought the building in 2006.

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343 George Street Sydney
New South Wales 

Dexus Close to Selling 343 George Street

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343 George Street SydneyDEXUS Property Group is believed to have found a buyer for its 343 George Street office building, in the Sydney CBD.

A private investor is understood to be in exclusive due diligence to buy the heritage listed 11-storey building for more than $50 million. The negotiation may explain why a public campaign to sell the ASX building at 20 Bridge Street, has been delayed two weeks. That building was expected to sell for about $170 million.

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National 

Devine Fires Two Staff for Conflict of Interest

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Devine Limited advises that two senior managers of its Construction Division, Devine Constructions, had their employment with the company terminated on Friday 29th February 2008. This action resulted from clear evidence of breaches of the company’s policies in relation to “Ethical Code of Conduct” and “Conflicts of Interest” and evidence that both have undertaken fraudulent activities in respect of the Devine Group.

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National 

Lend Lease Delivers Strong Half Year Profit Result Amid Tough Market Conditions

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Lend Lease delivers strong half year profit result amid tough market conditions    

* Statutory Profit After Tax up 49% to A$259.6m
* EPS on Operating Profit up 60% to 65.5 cents
* Net Operating Profit After Tax up 61% to A$262.8m  Interim dividend up 23% to 43 cents a share

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National 

Westfield Group Announces Solid Growth in Operational And Development Earnings

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The Westfield Group (ASX:WDC) today announced its full year results, reporting operational segment earnings for the year ended 31 December 2007 of $1.79 billion, up 11.6% over the prior year.  This represents 96.12 cents per security, an increase of 6.0% on a constant currency basis.

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National 

Valad Announces 139% Increase in Underlying Earnings; Reaffirms FY08 Forecast

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* Solid performance from diverse operations across 13 countries
* Proven funds platform, raising A$1.2 billion of equity and debt in 2H08
* AUM of A$20.5 billion, diversified by sector, geography and business line
* Continued focus on integration and consolidation of Australasian, European and UK platforms

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