GIC and have bought an office building in the Australian capital Canberra from Mirae Global Asset Management for A$335m (β¬208m).
Singaporeβs sovereign wealth fund has formed a joint venture with Charter Hall to undertake the acquisition of 50 Marcus Clarke, a government-tenanted, A-grade building.
ΒιΆΉΣ³» Real Assets understands that GIC will have a 95% interest, with Charter Hall holding the remaining 5%.
Lee Kok Sun, GICβs CIO for real estate, said: βThis acquisition will add to diversification of GICβs office portfolio across key cities in the Australian market β where GIC has been investing for many years.β
GIC opened an office in Sydney in June and this year stepped up investments in Australia, including the purchase with ESR of the $3.8bn Milestone Logistics Portfolio from Blackstone in April.
Kishore Gotety, GICβs co-head of real estate for Asia ex-China, said: βThe Canberra market has performed well during COVID, with continued macro-economic growth and low office vacancy.
βGoing forward, we expect steady office demand, underpinned by healthy employment growth and government demand. Lastly, we look forward to leveraging Charter Hallβs strong leasing capabilities to create more value-add.β
David Harrison, Charter Hallβs managing director and group CEO, said the strategic acquisition further strengthened Charter Hallβs 15-year relationship with GIC.
βWe are also pleased to advance our relationship with the Australian government as a major tenant customer, and to further increase our exposure to Canberraβs growing office market,β he said.
The building is occupied by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment. Koreaβs Mirae Asset Global Investments bought the building in 2017 for A$321m from Singaporeβs CIMB Trust Capital.
It is Charter Hallβs third purchase of a Canberra office building this year, having previously bought the Services Australia building for A$306m and the Doris Blackburn building for A$99m.
