Industrial property is running hot and the Allan Fife-managed Australian Industrial REIT is rumoured to be considered tapping equity markets to fund its next play.
A sharp post-results lift in its price has prompted talk it will again tap investors, this time to buy in Queensland.
The fund is throwing off an 8.2 per cent dividend yield, but some have cautioned that income growth next financial year may be modest.
Earlier this year Fife Capital snapped up a portfolio of six properties from fund manager PrimeWest in Melbourne and Perth for $81.3 million for its listed fund. UBS handled an equity raising at the time.
Buying a portfolio may go against the fund’s strategy of buying stand-alone assets, but it may look to add to its $30m existing reserves while pricing is strong.
Elsewhere, deals to sell the $350m portfolio of industrial and residential development sites in NSW and Queensland being offloaded by the Scheinberg Group of Companies are nearing completion.
The portfolio spans five industrial sites in Sydney and two residential development sites and a marina in Queensland. It is being carved up among buyers in a process run by Colliers International.
Sydney developer Payce snapped up a site in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn for one of its landmark residential projects. Charter Hall Group is also chasing a large site in Sydney’s Yennora that houses a large Woolworths distribution centre.
It is thought that freehold interest of a large site in Sydney’s Chullora, where Charter Hall has the long term ground lease, may come back to market. A private group is in due diligence on another site in Chullora leased by McWilliams wines.
While the focus is now on the $350m Altis assets more industrial portfolios — from Charter Hall and Equity Commonwealth — are tipped to hit the market soon.
Pitt Street Real Estate Partners is already selling, through JLL, two logistics facilities, one in Sydney and the other in Brisbane, with $150m expected.
The Stephen Day-led group PropertyLink is also closing in on the purchase of Valad’s $140m portfolio. The group is reviewing the portfolio that includes six warehouses with the deal being done by Colliers International.
Charter Hall and US group WP Carey are also buying the bulk of a portfolio of Inghams Emterprises properties in a deal being handled by CBRE.