ALLIANZ Real Estate, acting on behalf of several Allianz companies, in a 50-50 joint venture with Charter Hall Group managed wholesale fund CPIF, signed the sale & purchase agreement on June 4 to acquire an Australian logistics portfolio of 4 ALDI distribution centres for A$648 million (US$450 million). The settlement for the transaction is expected later in the month.

The assets, which are located in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, were designed and built by ALDI to a high-quality specification and sold with 7-year lease backs plus multiple 7-year renewal options.

The Sydney logistic facilities are 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 at Dandenong Sand and the Brisbane asset located at Brendale.

“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,” says Rushabh Desai, Asia-Pacific CEO of Allianz Real Estate.

The transaction is in line with the strategy of Allianz Real Estate in aligning its investments to secular mega trends in the Asia-Pacific region. Demand for logistics in Australia is underpinned by growth in e-commerce, increasing international trade and the resilience of non-discretionary retail spending.

“The ongoing growth and resilience of grocery retailing in Australia is consistent with our strategic focus in growing our industrial and logistics portfolio toward A$10 billion and beyond,” says David Harrison, CEO and managing director of Charter Hall.

Combining the balance sheet strength of CPIF and its partner Allianz Real Estate gave Charter Hall a competitive advantage in convincing ALDI that it could deliver an unconditional executed transaction within a short timeframe, having recently secured FIRB approval for the transaction.

Allianz Real Estate’s assets under management in the region amounted to 5.5 billion euros as at the end of 2019. The Asia-Pacific business is headquartered in Singapore.