FLT acquires two prime Australian properties for A$62.6m

FRASERS Logistics & Industrial Trust (FLT) has acquired two prime industrial properties in Australia from Frasers Property Australia Pty Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of sponsor Frasers Property Limited for a total of A$62.6 million (S$62.3 million).

The properties, both with 100 per cent occupancy rates, are located in the Australian states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland.

The NSW property has a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of seven years, a gross leasable area (GLA) of 20,078 square metres (sq m) and a remaining tenue of 88.9 years. 

The Queensland property is freehold and has a WALE of 4.2 years and GLA of 19,487 sq m.

The NSW and QLD properties are each leased to two individual tenants with average fixed annual rental increments of 3.1 per cent and 3 per cent per annum, respectively.

As the transaction will constitute an interested party transaction, the acquisition fee payable to the manager will be in the form of units of FLT, which cannot be sold within one year from the date of issuance.

The transaction will be financed from the divestment proceeds of 80 Hartley Street in New South Wales and Lot 102 Coghlan Road in South Australia.

Robert Wallace, chief executive officer of the Reit's manager said: "We are pleased to strengthen our footprint in Australia's eastern seaboard with the addition of two prime and modern industrial properties which are strategically located in established industrial precincts. Sydney and Brisbane continue to be core markets for FLT, and in the last 12 months both markets have seen strong market demand with limited supply."

He added that both properties will be accretive to FLT's distribution per unit.

Post-acquisition, FLT's portfolio will consist of 82 properties with a total GLA of some 1.9 million sq m and a portfolio value of around A$2.9 billion as at June 30, 2018.

FLT's counter ended Friday up 0.92 per cent to S$1.10, before the announcement was made.