Billionaire Nick Andrianakos picks up big mall stake in $385m deal
Billionaire Nick Andrianakos has struck his biggest single property deal yet, taking a $385 million half stake in Melbourne’s Northland shopping mall as he consolidates his wealth with an expanding commercial real estate portfolio.
It is the fourth time in as many years that Andrianakos has swooped into the big-mall sector and in all of those deals he has emerged as a co-investor with ASX-listed Vicinity Centres.
And the latest deal comes at as a tidy bargain for Andrianakos, who bought his half stake from an unlisted retail property fund managed by GPT Group.
GPT acquired its interest for $496 million from a Canadian pension fund in 2014. Vicinity recorded a book value for its stake at $410 million last year, at a 6 per cent yield.
The deal – handled off-market by CBRE’s Simon Rooney and Colliers’ Lachlan MacGillivray – is also a welcome shot in the arm for the Victorian retail sector, as the biggest such transaction since 2018.
Ranked 90th on the Financial Review Rich List last year with $1.73 billion to his name, Andrianakos arrived in Australia from Greece in 1966 and went on to build his fortune through the Milemaker chain of petrol stations, which he sold to Caltex in 2016 while retaining the freehold.
Since then, he has steadily diversified into commercial property, with a sizeable component of his portfolio now devoted to retail real estate.
Andrianakos’ move in shopping centres has been timed nicely with a period of disruption across the sector, as major landlords came under pressure from the rise of e-commerce, pandemic lockdowns, and falling valuations.
A wave of divestment has followed, making possible a series of opportunistic acquisitions by boutique fund managers such as Fawkner Property and IP Generation and wealthy privates including Andrianakos.
The Northland deal typifies that trend as cashed-up buyers cherry-pick their positions in large regional and sub-regional shopping centre stakes. Around 15 part-share deals totalling $3.5 billion having been completed since the start of last year.
Since 2022, the Andrianakos Property Group – led by his son Theo Andrianakos and with Nicholas O’Brien as its chief operating officer – has outlaid close to $850 million, taking stakes in two Adelaide malls and now two Melbourne malls. Vicinity is the co-investor and retains the management rights at all four malls where Andrianakos has half stake.
There may be more upside to come for Andrianakos at Northland, which stands on a prominent 19-hectare site with significant development potential at Preston in the heart of Melbourne’s busy northern suburbs.
The mall has more than 98,000 square metres of retail space, occupied by some of the country’s biggest brands including Myer, Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Kmart, Target and Hoyts Cinemas.
Two years ago, the centre underwent a major expansion of its entertainment and leisure precinct.
