Swiss look to sell $130m Brisbane office tower
Swiss pension fund investor AFIAA is looking to sell the former Leighton Holdings HQ office tower in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley with expectations it could fetch about $130 million.
AFIAA, owned by 45 pension funds, has recently been in the market on the buy side, picking up a William Street tower in the Melbourne CBD from Singapore investor Straits Real Estate for $161.5 million last year in an off-market deal.
AFIAA, which invests exclusively in foreign real estate assets, bought the bigger South Tower in the overall 38,500-square-metre Brisbane office development in 2010 for $95 million on a yield of about 7.5 per cent.
The 10-storey tower is now to be sold through Savills Anthony Ott and Peter Chapple alongside Knight Frank’s Ben McGrath and Justin Bond.
AFIAA has a significant presence in Australia with buildings, including the 11-storey Northbank Place East Tower at 525 Flinders Street which was purchased for about $55 million from a Uniting Church entity in 2012. It also bought the AusAid building in Canberra for about $55 million in late 2009. It also owns The Atrium complex in Pyrmont which it bought from Charter Hall’s wholesale office fund for $137m earlier that year.
AFIAA declined to comment on its reasons for selling Brisbane. However, it’s likely to be one of timing with several major transactions having revved up the market which still has some difficulties in leasing.
Last month South Korea’s Teachers Pension fund purchased the Industry Superannuation Property Trust’s Green Square office building in Brisbane for more than $200 million.
Last year after buying in Melbourne, AFIAA asset manager Jurg Erismann said: “With this recent acquisition, we are expanding our involvement in the Asia-Pacific region. We see Melbourne, in particular, as offering further potential for rental growth in prime locations.”
In December last year AFIAA expanded its portfolio in North America snapping up a Class-A office building in the New York City borough of Manhattan for about $US150 million ($198 million).
AFIAA has flagged plans to expand the portfolio from about CHF1.4 billion ($1.84 billion) to CHF3 billion.
