Charter Hall acquires remaining 50 per cent stake in 275 George Street, Brisbane

Charter Hall Group (Charter Hall or the Group) has today announced that the Charter Hall Prime Office Fund (CPOF) has acquired the remaining 50 per cent stake of 275 George Street in Brisbane from Keppel REIT, taking its ownership of the building to 100 per cent.

Exercising its first right of refusal option, CPOF has agreed to purchase the remaining 50 per cent stake in 275 George Street for $275m. Keppel REIT had held the property at a book value of $245m based on a December 2020 valuation.

Charter Hall originally developed this high-profile prime Brisbane CBD office building in 2009 along with the adjoining 69 Ann Street building following the successful execution of one of Brisbane’s largest CBD tenant pre-commitments, which saw Telstra occupy 50,000 square metres (sqm) of office space across both buildings.

The twin tower complex, which comprises a combined 68,400sqm of lettable area, benefits from three street frontages and is one of Brisbane’s largest CBD sites, comprising a total site area of 8,000sqm adjacent to the Brisbane Town Hall and directly opposite Charter Hall’s existing Brisbane Square precinct.

In addition to Telstra, 275 George Street tenant customers include Shell and both Federal and State Government agencies, maintaining an exceptionally high-quality tenant customer profile.

Charter Hall Office CEO, Carmel Hourigan said, “This acquisition is consistent with Charter Hall’s office precinct strategy and demonstrates our key focus on owning and managing high quality office buildings in prime locations across major Australian CBDs and other high conviction markets. By acquiring the remaining stake in this property, we are also increasing CPOF’s exposure to long-term, high quality tenant customers, in line with Charter Hall Group’s proven customer focussed approach.”  

Fund Manager of CPOF, Matthew Brown said, “This latest acquisition is a continuation of CPOF’s tactical re-weighting of the portfolio towards high quality modern assets on the eastern seaboard where we have the ability to successfully create major CBD precincts. As a result of this acquisition the CPOF portfolio will grow to $7.5 billion in assets under management, with an additional $1 billion of committed pre-leased office projects nationally. With a further $1 billion pipeline of develop to core projects secured and awaiting commencement, CPOF is set to diversify and grow its portfolio well beyond $8.5 billion.”

The core capitalisation rate for this transaction was 5 per cent.  

Keppel REIT described the sale as necessary part of a “continuing portfolio optimisation strategy to provide greater financial flexibility as it seeks strategic and higher yielding acquisitions to enhance Keppel REIT’s income resilience and deliver sustainable total return to Unitholders”.

The property was acquired by Keppel REIT in 2010 as its first Australian asset for $166M. The net sale price represents a 59.0% gain on the original purchase price. Keppel will to use the sale proceeds to repay debt, other divestment and transaction related costs in the interim to enhance capital efficiency and manage borrowing costs.

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