Aldi has completed the highly anticipated sale of its 4 logistics assets on the eastern seaboard to Charter Hall & Allianz, with a $648m transaction.
Charter Hall Group managed CPIF will extend its relationship with global institutional investor Allianz Real Estate, acting on behalf of several Allianz group companies, to acquire the portfolio of logistics assets located in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
The ALDI distribution centres were designed and built by ALDI to a high-quality specification and sold with seven-year triple net lease back terms with multiple seven-year options.
The total rental from the portfolio is $30.1m and provides Charter Hall with a passing yield of 4.6% pa.
Among the interested parties for the sale-and-leaseback deal were Mirvac, backed by Morgan Stanley, as well as Asian-based logistics platform ESR.
The four asset portfolio comprises Sydney logistics facilities located within prime industrial locations of Minchinbury and Prestons within the Outer West and South West suburbs of Sydney, whilst the Melbourne facility is located in the prime Dandenong industrial precinct, with the Brisbane asset located in the Northern suburb of Brendale.
David Harrison, Managing Director and Group CEO of Charter Hall said “We are delighted to once again extend our cross-sector relationship with ALDI who will become a sizeable cross sector tenant customer. Further, combining the balance sheet strength of CPIF and its partner Allianz Real Estate gave Charter Hall a competitive advantage in convincing ALDI that we could deliver an unconditional executed transaction within a short timeframe, having recently secured FIRB approval for the transaction.”
“Accessing the on-going growth and resilience of grocery retailing in Australia has been a consistent thematic driving the growth of our Industrial and Logistics portfolio toward $10 billion and beyond, now representing 25 per cent of our enlarged $40 billion platform” said Mr Harrison.
“We value our long-standing relationship with Charter Hall, and we are very excited to partner with them on the acquisition of the ALDI logistics portfolio. ALDI is known to us in Germany and we are pleased to broaden the relationship with them” said Mr Desai.
JLL led by Tony Iuliano negotiated the transaction on behalf of ALDI.
Earlier this year, German insurer Allianz has announced plans to combine, Allianz Real Estate, and fixed income investment manager, Pimco, into a leading real estate manager. The shares of Allianz Real Estate, which has more than €70bn in assets under management, were to be transferred to Pimco to form a real estate manager with €100bn in real estate across Europe, the US and Asia Pacific.
Allianz said the two organisations were complementary, with Pimco’s opportunistic investments and credit in the US and Europe and Allianz Real Estate’s expertise in direct and indirect investments in core and value-add assets across Europe, Asia Pacific and the US.
Allianz Real Estate Asia Pacific CEO Rushbah Desai says the Aldi transaction is a continuation of the company tapping into the mega-trends underpinning the APAC region.
"Demand for logistics in Australia is underpinned by growth in e-commerce, increasing international trade and the resilience of non-discretionary retail spending", says Desai
"We value our long-standing relationship with Charter Hall, and we are very excited to partner with them on the acquisition of the ALDI logistics portfolio. ALDI is known to us in Germany and we are pleased to broaden the relationship with them."
In a similar sale to Aldi's, private equity giant Blackstone shelved its plans to offload an $800 million portfolio of logistics assets last month. The group are believed have been awaiting the outcome of the Aldi deal whilst considering alternative options including initiating a separate listing. The portfolio included 21 logistics assets with a five year weighted average lease expiry.
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