Capital & Counties is launching a $A135m (£59m) Australian property trust which will give investors in the UK, the Far East and Australasia a stake in property Down Under.
The Capcount Property Trust will acquire two sites and five of Capital & Counties’ recent developments in Sydney and Brisbane.
The properties, which include Macquarie Corporate Park and a third interest in the Aetna Centre, both in Sydney, have been independently valued at $A105.8m by Jones Lang Wootton.
The trust will be issuing 135m units of $A1(44p) each, 30m of which have been placed by Robert Fleming in Europe and the Far East.
Capital & Counties will be taking up 45m units, a third of the total, and 60m have been placed in Australia and southeast Asia by stockbrokers AC Goode & Co and Potters Partners Underwriting.
Capcount are forecasting a yield of 9%, and Jones Lang Wooton’s three-year performance projection foresees a 17% pa compound return.
The trust’s management company includes among its directors Peter Kernaglan and John Studdy, managing director and chairman respectively of C & C’s Australian subsidiary, The thinking behind the property trust is that it provides a tax-transparent vehicle for holding C & C’s investments.
