Australian property investment company Charter Hall Group has established a partnership with GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, to acquire a 49% stake in the Ampol Property Trust which owns 203 convenience retail properties throughout Australia for A$682 million ($489.81 million).
The A$1.4 billion Ampol portfolio, currently branded Caltex throughout Australia, will have initial lease terms ranging from 11 through to 22 years, a 19.2 year WALE and 10 year initial option terms, plus multiple 5 year options thereafter. The properties will be subject to CPI annual rent reviews, with minimum 2% and maximum 5% increases per annum.
Upon completion of the transaction, Ampol will hold a 51% controlling interest in the property trust and maintain strategic and operational control of the core convenience retail sites. All sites held within the property trust will be leased back to Ampol under long-term triple net lease arrangements.
Charter Hall Group will own 5% or $34 million of the Charter Hall partnership, or a look through interest of 2.45% in the Ampol portfolio.
“This off market transaction follows regular dialogue with the Ampol team over the past 2 years and reinforces our confidence in the convenience retail sector. The extension of our 15-year relationship with GIC further grows the breadth of this multi- sector relationship and reflects our strong market position and continued conviction for Long WALE assets with strong underlying investment fundamentals,” said Managing Director and Group CEO David Harrison.
”Following the completion of our retail network review in 2019, we identified the opportunity to unlock the value of our high-quality retail property assets through a transaction that would demonstrate value, whilst importantly allowing Ampol to retain strategic and operational control over our core Convenience Retail network,” said Matt Halliday, Ampol’s Managing Director and CEO.
