The new purchase consisting of three office and one life science/industrial assets will be owned by the Charter Hall Direct Funds, together with the Charter Hall Long WALE REIT.
The acquisition will grow the Charter Hall platforms office portfolio to beyond $23 billion, with a 30 per cent exposure to government and government-related tenants.
The portfolio holds the $230 million Australian Taxation Office building in Melbourne; the $85 million ATO building in Albury, NSW; an Australian Red Cross building in Sydney and the Services Australia building in Canberra.
Charter Hall has bought the portfolio in a joint venture between the Charter Hall Long WALE REIT, which will own 50 per cent of each asset, while the Charter Hall Direct Office Fund will own the Melbourne ATO and Canberra Services Australia buildings. The Charter Hall Direct PFA Fund will have a stake in the Albury ATO building and the Charter Hall Direct Industrial Fund No.4 will own the Sydney ATO building.
Charter Hall managing director and group chief executive David Harrison commented: “We continue to deliver on the long WALE and government lease thematic that Charter Hall has pursued for many years which, in the current environment of low interest rates and the focus on secure and growing income streams, provides attractive risk adjusted returns to both our listed and unlisted fund investors.
“We are also very pleased to secure another asset in the social infrastructure sector leased to such an essential service provider as the Australian Red Cross.”
The new deal brings Charter Hall’s total acquisitions in the 2021 financial year across the office, retail and industrial and logistics and social infrastructure sectors to around $7 billion.
Charter Hall Direct CEO Steven Bennett added the 50 per cent share in the portfolio acquisition will lift the Direct business to around $7.5 billion in scale.
