Melbourne lawyer Konfir Kabo selling $60m petrol station portfolio
An east coast portfolio of 17 petrol station developed by Melbourne lawyer, property investor and restaurant owner Konfir Kabo has been put up for sale and could fetch more than $60 million
The portfolio is leased to all the major petrol retailers including Shell, BP, Caltex, Viva Energy and United and comprises 13 petrol stations in Victoria, three in NSW and one in Queensland.
Indonesian-born Mr Kabo runs Melbourne law firm Kabo Lawyers, which has offices on Collins Street and specialises in migration and property law.
In addition to his property investments, Mr Kabo and his partner Monica Lim own a number of Melbourne noodle bars and have also partnered with Thai giant CP Foods to roll out 1000WAT fast food kiosks across the country with venues in Emporium Melbourne and Chadstone Shopping Centre.
Mr Kabo acquired sites and developed petrol stations and retail outlets on them over the past five years.
His spokesman, Bill Forwood, told The Australian Financial Review that Mr Kabo was selling his investments but would continue to roll out new petrol stations in what has been a successful development model.
The Victoria-centric petrol station portfolio includes outlets in regional locations such as Bendigo, Echuca, Albury, Gisborne and Ballarat as well as in Narre Warren and Wollert in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.
The portfolio brings in annual net income of about $3.5 million with a weighted average lease expiry of 10.5 years.
It comes to market at a time of strong demand for the asset class with independent groups like United Petroleum achieving generally strong results for their petrol stations backed by 15-year leases. Investors are particularly keen on assets underpinned by sites with strong underlying land value.
In July, Melbourne developer Longriver paid almost $23 million for a BP petrol station in the high-rise suburb of Box Hill offloaded by Greek Australian petrol magnate Andreas Andrianopoulos.
Parties that could be interested in the portfolio may include petrol station property trusts Viva Energy REIT and the recently floated Convenience Retail REIT.
It’s being marketed in one line or individually by Daniel Wolman, Harry Bui and Peter Seeto of Colliers International, who have sold 47 service stations worth $240 million in the first half of the year.
“Demand for the asset class is high, with owners being able to generate cash from the sale of petrol pumps as well as the more lucrative retail component,” Mr Wolman said.
