Latest news with #IPGeneration
The Australian
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Australian
MA Financial makes retail splash with IPGeneration funds buy
The listed MA Financial Group has inked a deal to buy the growing IPGeneration property funds operation and will look to grow it as the retail property sector is in a sweet spot. The listed company, which counts Andrew Pridham as vice chairman, is buying the Melbourne real estate investment management for $90.4m, to be paid mainly in shares. The business, which controls a $2bn shopping centre empire, will be integrated into the existing MA Financial real estate platform, which spans pubs, shopping centres and marinas. The move will grow the listed firm's real estate empire to about $8bn and overall assets to more than $12bn. Set up in 2018, IPGeneration manages about $2bn of retail shopping centre assets across ten funds that own 14 shopping centres located in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and WA. MA Financial joint chief executive Julian Biggins said IP Generation had an impressive record in securing assets, raising capital and delivering strong returns. The group was at the vanguard of a group of nimble funds houses, including Haben and Fawkner, that snapped up assets that were unloaded by larger institutions as they came under pressure to sell. It picked up centres including Stockland Glendale in NSW, Craigieburn Central in Melbourne and a 50 per cent interest in Rockingham Centre in WA. IPGeneration has also proven up its strategy by profitably selling off one early asset, in Victoria's Corio, after boosting its performance. The deal is expected to give MA Financial's own business a boost as it will have more scale and expertise on board and larger companies and funds remain under pressure to sell assets. There will be 29 real estate investment professionals joining MA Financial's real estate asset team and the overall business will run about $8bn in core, alternative and real estate credit assets. IPGeneration founder and chief executive Chris Lock will become head of core real estate at MA Financial. The firm's chairman David Blight, a former ING Real Estate global, and director Greg Miles, an ex-Scentre senior executive, will also join MA Financial. The $90.4m purchase price represents a multiple of 7.9 time earnings and includes an $80m upfront component, with deal billed as accretive to MA Financial's underlying earnings per share this financial year. Mr Biggins said the acquisition builds scale in the firm's core real estate business at an attractive once in a cycle opportunity in the real estate market. 'This acquisition will mutually benefit our many investor clients, which aligns with our philosophy of achieving win-win outcomes for clients, shareholders, and staff,' he said. Mr Lock said the two companies had a strong cultural fit and alignment. He said the scale of the combined business 'enables us to deliver even better opportunities and investment returns to all our clients in the future'. Ben Wilmot Commercial Property Editor Ben Wilmot has been The Australian's commercial property editor since 2013. He was previously a property journalist with the Australian Financial Review.
News.com.au
16-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Change is coming for huge long-vacant North Geelong retail site
The biggest retail black hole in Geelong's northern suburbs is about to be filled as a landmark building is traded in an off-market deal. The former Rays Outdoors building at 340-344 Melbourne Rd, North Geelong, has sold for $8.5m in an off-market transaction managed by Colliers agent Chris Nanni. Property records show IP Generation, which recently sold Corio Village shopping centre to Charter Hall for $146m, had acquired the Melbourne Rd site. The high-profile property has sat idle and vandalised for more than a decade since Super Retail Group vacated the site, which had last sold in 2023 for $5.8m. Mr Nanni said the key to unlocking the site was identifying national tenants prepared to lease space in the building, one of the last remaining substantial large format retail sites on Melbourne Rd. He said the corner location was unique that it offered 'left-in and right-in access' at the Collopy St intersection, making it perfect for large format retail. Loading bays and off-street carparking were also favourable. The property has been restructured to offer the new owner strong returns, Mr Nanni said. 'The sale price reflects a rate on lettable area of below $1800 per square metre, well below the replacement cost, and this sets the new owners up to drive very compelling returns over the short to medium term,' Mr Nanni said. The work to attract interest and lease offers from national retail, leisure and entertainment tenants, had effectively 'de-risked' the site for the new owner. 'There has been enormous demand from national retailers for highway frontage sites like this for a while,' Mr Nanni said. 'We received interest and offers from various national tenants and presented the site to a local developer/investor. 'After negotiations, the parties agreed, and we have secured lease offers ahead of settlement.' The purchaser engaged Colliers to lease the space, successfully securing several compelling offers from high-profile national tenants to take 100 per cent occupancy of the site later this year. The property is set to be subdivided once the leases were locked in. It's one of the last retail sites available on Melbourne Rd, with Pelligra midway through construction of several buildings on its opposing Fortek site. The final piece is the still-vacant former Godfreys site at the corner of The Boulevard, which sold for $4.21m in 2018. 'High-profile assets like this are in high demand, especially from national retailers seeking large sites in Geelong,' Mr Nanni said. 'The lack of supply to meet this demand remains strong.' 'The tenants were drawn to the property's strategic location with its high exposure and accessibility. Mr Nanni said the demand from national large format retailers to secure sites in Geelong continues to grow as the city continues its growth trajectory. 'The fact that we were able to identify tenants and present offers before settlement underpinned the sale,' he said.
News.com.au
06-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Charter Hall swoops on major Geelong shopping centre in $146m off-market deal
Major Australian shopping centre investor Charter Hall has expanded its reach in the Geelong market with a $146m off-market purchase of Corio Village shopping centre. Charter Hall secured the 33,600sq m Geelong northern suburbs mall in a transaction managed by Nick Willis and Sam Hatcher for JLL. The centre is anchored by Coles, Kmart and Woolworths and about 75 other tenants, and boasts a high performance recording around $200 million in annual turnover. Aldi anchored shopping centre snares big sale price The sale demonstrates continued investor confidence in subregional shopping centres, driven by their essential role within communities and robust tenant mix. The sale follows a $20.58m transaction of the Aldi-anchored neighbourhood centre, Bell Park Plaza. Founder and CEO of IP Generation Chris Lock said the sale of Corio Village marks the end of a six-year comprehensive asset improvement strategy, which saw $45m added to the value of the centre after that time. 'Through targeted repositioning works, we have successfully transformed the centre into a core convenience hub for the community, while delivering strong outcomes for our investors. 'We remain focused on the retail sector and continue to seek opportunities.' As part of the transformation, IP Generation reopened the centre's basement, which originally featured a ten-pin bowling alley, with General Public opening an entertainment hub including 11 ten-pin bowling lanes, pool tables, an electronic darts board and other arcade games, as well as food and craft beer, while US gym franchise Planet Fitness also opened its first local location at Corio Village. IP Generation bought Corio Village from Vicinity Centres for $101m in 2019. Charter Hall was attracted by the centre's strong returns and significant growth prospects. Charter Hall Retail chief executive officer Ben Ellis said the Corio acquisition continues the successful growth of its convenience partnership acquisitions. 'We pursued Corio for its anchor supermarket convenience attributes, which reflected a 7 per cent cap rate,' he said. 'Combined with forecast income growth, it's expected to deliver accretive returns for the partnership.' Charter Hall managing director David Harrison said the business has always had high conviction on convenience retail, and see it continuing to outperform discretionary retail larger malls. 'We know these catchments well, having also acquired Leopold south of Geelong, along with the very successful development of a Woolworths, Bunnings and Officeworks anchored shopping centre at North Altona in the southwest of Melbourne metropolitan area,' Mr Harrison said. 'The fact that most convenience centres can be acquired at deep discounts to replacement cost is a core value metric we focus on within our selective acquisition program.' JLL senior director Nick Willis said access to high-quality sub-regionals is becoming increasingly constrained amid a global resurgence in capital demand for the sector. 'This transaction provides evidence of the shifting buyer profile away from the manager or syndicator groups who have led the acquisitions charge over the last five years, to now increased participation from institutions and REITs as they shift back to net acquirers.'
