The Future Fund and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have moved to sell more than $600 million worth of shopping centres around Australia.
The property being offered via the two investors' Vicinity Property Retail Partnership fund includes two 50 per cent stakes in the Rockingham Shopping Centre, south of Perth, and Grand Plaza Shopping Centre at Browns Plains in Brisbane's south.
The two huge pension funds, which combined manage $450 billion, poured about $750 million into the retail partnership in 2010.
Now the manager of the fund Vicinity Centres has appointed JLL's head of retail investments for Australasia to sell the two stakes in the shopping centres as the retail partnership fund reaches the end of its eight-year life.
Investment in regional shopping centres is difficult to obtain with only one deal taking place in the past two years being that of a half-share in Westfield Woden in Canberra to the private Perron Group for $335 million.
The Rockingham Shopping Centre comprises 62,314 square metres of gross lettable area and includes tenants Coles and Woolworths supermarkets, a Kmart and Target DDS, as well as an Ace Cinemas, specialty tenancies and parking for 3200 cars.
The Grand Plaza shopping centre spans 53,412 square metres and is anchored by Woolworths, Coles and Aldi supermarkets as well as a strong performing Kmart, Target and Big W DDS, together with four mini-majors, specialty tenancies and parking for 2500 cars.
The sale process follows an ongoing divestment of the retail partnership's assets.
In May the partnership sold its 24,000-square-metre Salamander Bay Centre, north-east of Newcastle, for $174.5 million to the Charter Hall Retail REIT.
The latest offering is likely to attract offshore buyers, who are the dominant buyers of sub-regional shopping centres, having acquired more than $2 billion worth of retail assets in the past three years. They include M&G; Real Estate's $221 million purchase of the Casey Central shopping centre in Melbourne late last year. Singapore-based Rockworth Capital also snapped up Town Square Redbank Plains for $160 million in May.
Vicinity and the selling agent JLL's Simon Rooney have declined to comment on the latest move to sell.
