Blackstone snaps up industrial quartet!

Private equity and property giant Blackstone has upped its exposure to Australia’s industrial property market, snapping up a portfolio that takes its holdings to about $1.5 billion.

Warehouses and logistics parks are taking on a higher profile as landlords prepare for a wave of e-commerce-related deals, with developers vying to accommodate Amazon and a host of imitators. Blackstone has been at the vanguard of logistics property globally and put together the Logicor business in Europe, which it is now seeking to exit via a trade sale or float valuing the business at more than €10bn ($14 billion).

The group’s Australian arm, 151 Property, has hired sector veteran Matthew Meredith, to run its industrial business, prompting suggestions it is bulking up before offering the unit for sale as it has with the $4 billion shopping centre portfolio it is now marketing.

Blackstone’s latest play will see it buy $126 million worth of properties from the listed Charter Hall, adding to the $1.3 billion worth of industrial parks it picked up from Goodman Group last year.

The Australian flagged the off-market deal, brokered by Colliers International, last month. Two Charter Hall trusts, the Prime ­Industrial Fund and the Core Logistics Partnership, will sell the portfolio of four industrial properties to Blackstone.

The US group is buying two properties in Queensland, in Pinkenba and Geebung, and two in Victoria, in Laverton North and Tottenham.

Three were sold by CPIF and one by CLP, with the prices ­reflecting a premium above-book value and an equated capitalisation rate of 6.98%.

Charter Hall is among the top players in the growing industrial and logistics sector and has built up a $4.7 billion empire to make it second largest behind global giant Goodman Group.

Charter Hall group executive, industrial, Paul Ford says the company is realising the benefits of scale, as well as looking after the logistics needs of retail customers like Woolworths and Wesfarmers-owned Coles and Bunnings.

Listed rivals Stockland, Mirvac and Dexus are racing to bulk up their own industrial property businesses. Dexus took investors on a tour of its Sydney facilities last week and says it will keep its ­exposure to the area, while admitting it does not have the scale to match its competitors.

While some listed groups might not be as big, they are trying to convert some of their sites into new projects, including ­apartments, to get more value from them.

Goodman has also reaped more than $1 billion by selling ­un­wanted industrial parks to billionaire Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Apartments and Chinese ­develop­ers, getting in early as the apartment boom slows. Industrial landlords hope the wave of e-commerce deals will boost the sector as the prospect of quick dollars by converting sites to units fades.

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