Lend Lease has launched a commercial property fund to invest in a $2 billion tower development at the Barangaroo South project in Sydney.
The new fund will acquire the largest tower at the site, known as Tower 1, with about $1.4bn of equity commitments from capital partners and about $600m of debt financing, Lend Lease said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
The Qatar Investment Authority has committed to a 37.5 per cent investment and the Lend Lease managed Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial will take a 25 per cent interest. Lend Lease will hold the remaining 37.5 per cent as a co-investor.
The property company has recently signed leasing arrangements with Marsh & McLennan Companies and Servcorp for the building.
Three commercial towers at the site are currently under construction, with Towers 2 and 3 expected to be completed in fiscal 2016 and Tower 1 in fiscal 2017.
Lend Lease also said today that it remained comfortable with fiscal 2015 consensus expectations for net profit after tax of between $604m to $635m. The forecasts have an average of $619m based on expectations reported on Bloomberg.
In other property developments, the Queensland Government last week said Lend Lease had been chosen to design and construct the Gateway Upgrade North project.
"We remain positive on the pipeline of infrastructure projects in Australia with circa $20 billion of work expected to be tendered in the next two years," Lend Lease chief executive Steve McCann said.