Auckland self-storage giant hangs up for-sale sign via KPMG
Auckland’s largest self-storage owner-operator with 13 sites in its portfolio is set to change hands in 2025.
Street Talk understands National Mini Storage has tapped KPMG’s M&A team in New Zealand to kick off a sale process in the new year as its owner looks for the exit.
Sources say KPMG NZ head of M&A, Nick McKay, is leading the effort and has started informally pitching the asset to private capital types with relevant storage experience and the balance sheet to turbocharge growth throughout the island nation, and beyond.
National Mini Storage’s growth strategy is centred around pressing go on redevelopment opportunities given the business’ substantial land holdings, potential buyers told this column. It is understood earnings have stabilised between $25 million and $30 million.
100 per cent sale on cards
Its sole owner and founder is understood to be selling out in full. The business established its first branch in Penrose, Auckland, 33 years ago and quickly expanded to Auckland suburbs Albany, Takanini and East Tamaki with around 50 staff on its books.
Its multi-level New Lynn branch opened in October and its facility in Glen Innes is under construction, servicing some of Auckland’s wealthiest residential suburbs including St Heliers, Mission Bay and Orakei.
Interested parties are expected to compare the up-for-sale business to ASX-listed poster child National Storage REIT, which is trading on a 21-times forward price to funds from operations and a skinny discount to net tangible assets.
The $3.4 billion market cap REIT, Australia’s biggest owner of self-storage assets, is trading near all-time highs having risen 8.4 per cent over the past year. It had $1.4 billion debt at June 30, underpinning 250 centres that service 97,000 residential and commercial customers.
Abacus Storage King is another, which landed on the ASX in 2023 as a spin-off of Abacus’s $3 billion portfolio of Storage King self-storage properties and has about 150 centres. Then there’s the family owned Kennards with over 100 centres.
As an example of how much capital is keen to get into the sector, The Australian Financial Review reported last month that StorHub, the Warburg Pincus-backed self-storage operator headquartered in Singapore, had grown its Australian portfolio to 11 sites – four of which are open – after acquiring three properties in Sydney for over $110 million.
Prior to that, Singapore real estate investor GIC entered the Australian self-storage market via a $270 million joint venture with NSR in June.
Of note, Citi’s Self-Storage Website Tracker, which analyses website traffic data across a sample of the largest self-storage businesses, found website visits were up 17 per cent in September compared with a year ago, led by National Storage.
