Charter Hall Group, a Sydney-based property investment and funds management firm, announced Monday it formed a partnership with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC to invest A$682 million ($488 million) in an Australian chain of convenience retail properties.
Together with Ampol, a Sydney-based petroleum firm, the partnership established an unlisted property trust to hold 203 Ampol freehold convenience store retail sites.
The Charter Hall-GIC consortium "will acquire a 49% minority interest in the property trust for A$682 million," with Ampol retaining a 51% stake, according to an Ampol news release.
Charter Hall, in a separate news release, said it will own 5%, or A$34 million, of the partnership with GIC, giving it a 2.45% interest in the Ampol portfolio. GIC will own the remaining 95%, or roughly A$648 million stake in the partnership.
A spokeswoman for GIC confirmed the details.
The sovereign wealth fund doesn't reveal the size of its portfolio beyond saying over the past decade that it exceeds $100 billion. Analysts who track sovereign wealth funds have estimated the value of GIC's portfolio at $400 billion or more in recent years.
The partnership is one of many Charter Hall has forged with GIC over the past 15 years, Adrian Harrington, head of capital and product development at Charter Hall, said in an email.
Meanwhile, Mr. Harrington noted that Australia's convenience store sector has held up "extremely well" this year despite the global economic turmoil resulting from the COVID-19 crisis.
In line with "the essential service" those retail outlets play in the supply of fuel and also convenience retail items, the 5.5% initial yield the partnership will garner from its Ampol investment is roughly in line with its yield on Charter Hall's investment at the end of 2019 in 225 BP convenience retail assets, he noted.
