Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP), the second largest pension fund in Malaysia, has sold a Grade A office building in Sydney for around A$340 million (RM1.1 billion) to a wealthy individual from Hong Kong.
Deal Street Asia reported that the yield for the 20,390 sq m building is four to 4.5 percent – which is a record in Sydney’s business district.
Known as the Exchange Centre, the property at 20 Bridge Street has Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as anchor tenant occupying almost 50 percent of the building.
Australian commercial real estate firm Investa has been managing the property, which was put up for sale in March via real estate advisory firm Savills.
Completed in 1999, the office building has a weighted average lease expiry of more than seven years and an occupancy rate of 96 percent, reported IPE Real Estate.
KWAP acquired the property in 2011 for A$185 million (RM602.8 million) in a distressed sale after its former owner ran into financial problems in the wake of the global financial crisis.
The sale was mooted since 2016 when Wan Kamaruzaman Wan Ahmad, chief executive officer of KWAP, revealed that the pension fund had been receiving robust off-market bidding for the office tower.
“We have expressions of interest from both Australian and global players. If the price is right, we will sell,” said Wan Kamaruzaman at the time.
Describing the pension fund as globally ‘underinvested’, Wan Kamaruzaman explained that KWAP is “not sentimental about investments”.
The pension fund sold a London office building in March 2016 for £270 million (RM1.5 billion) to Hong Kong-based private investor Shaw Foundation.
Image sourced from Deal Street Asia
Radin Ghazali, Content Writer at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email radin@propertyguru.com.my
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