ASX-listed SCA Property Group and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC have teamed up to create a $750 million joint venture to invest in Australian metropolitan convenience retail centres.
The new, unlisted SCA Metro Convenience Shopping Centre fund will be seeded with seven assets from SCA’s existing portfolio worth $284.5m, representing a weighted average capitalisation rate of 4.84%.
The company said the pricing of the initial seed portfolio represented a 9.3% premium to its end-June 2021 valuations.
GIC will hold an 80% equity interest in the JV, while SCA will be the JV’s investment manager and hold the remaining 20% equity interest.
SCA said the JV would expand its participation in the convenience-retail sector, with the JV focused on neighbourhood assets in lower-yielding metropolitan locations.
To avoid a conflict of interest with SCP, the JV will have a first right over neighbourhood assets in the Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan areas until the target $750m of asset level was achieved.
SCP said the JV would increase third party assets under management and the diversification of income streams in a bid to generate further defensive cash flows.
The new JV follows Charter Hall Retail REIT’s $50.5 million acquisition of a 49% stake in a portfolio of 20 Ampol fuel and convenience retail centres earlier this week.
In other retail transactions around Australia, a new Bunnings store under construction in Queensland’s Hervey Bay sold for $58.6 million last month.
Greenpool Capital and Qualitas took over the Gold Coast’s Runaway Bay Centre after buying the remaining 50% interest from Vicinity Centres for $132 million, while Link REIT acquired a 50% stake in three retail properties in Sydney for $538.2 million.
CIP Asset Management sold a 50% stake in the Roselands shopping centre in Sydney for $167 million, and Vicinity Centres bought a 50% stake in the Gold Coast’s Harbour Town outlet centre from a Lendlease-managed fund for $358 million.
UniSuper and Cbus Property teamed up with AMP Capital to take majority ownership of the Gold Coast’s Pacific Fair and a 50% stake in Macquarie Centre in NSW in a retail deal worth $2.2 billion, as part of a recapitalisation of the AMP Capital Retail Trust.
Primewest also bought the Northgate Geraldton shopping centre in Geraldton, WA from a Lendlease fund for $71.2 million.