Mid-week ASX property wrap: 6 October

• AOF merger takes the next step, implementation deed entered
• AQR and ADI now trade under Dexus Convenience Retail and Dexus Industria REIT
• Alison Harropas appointed as SGP CFO

Welcome to a fairly quiet mid-week look at ASX listed real estate companies, where Australian Unity Office Fund’s (ASX: AOF) upcoming merger was the only major announcement.

The broader market

The ASX200 closed today at 7,206.50

Top-performing ASX listed real estate company shares: 6 October 2021

Source: ASX

In addition to the top performers, the bottom five (from fifth lowest to lowest) were:

Least-performing ASX listed real estate company shares: 6 October 2021

Source: ASX

The movement

The week kicked off with news the Australian Unity merger had gone from a July announcement to an implementation deed.

In July, Australian Unity Investment Real Estate Limited (AUIREL) Chairman, Peter Day, said that following a strategic assessment, the Board identified a potential merger of Australian Unity Office Fund (ASX: AOF) and Australian Unity Diversified Property Fund (DPF).

At the time, the combined portfolio would include 18 assets, worth just under $1.2 billion across office, convenience retail, and industrial sectors.

The portfolio would have an occupancy of approximately 96% and a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of approximately 4.8 years.

Without the merger, AOF would have a 95.3% occupancy and WALE of 2.6 years, DPF an occupancy of 97.4% and WALE of 7.6 years.

Under the terms of the Merger, AOF will acquire all the units in DPF and issue new AOF units to DPF unitholders at the ratio of 0.455 AOF unit for every 1 DPF unitheld.

Following the merger, AOF unitholders will own approximately 54% of AUPF, and DPF holders 46%.

APN Industria REIT (ASX: ADI) announced that the fund was renamed Dexus Industria. The ticker will change on the completion of corporate actions currently taking place and this change will be communicated to the ASX.

APN Convenience Retail REIT (ASX: DXC) also announced a name change, now known as Dexus Convenience Retail REIT. The ticker has changed from AQR to DXC.

Eureka Group Holding (ASX: EGH) released its annual report, announcing a profit after tax of $6.28 million, compared to a profit after tax of $8.10 million in 2020. Underlying earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) was $10.57 million, up 21%.

EGH net operating cash flow was $7.85 million, up 13% after adjusting for a $0.64 million in 2020; and net tangible assets per share was 37.5 cents, up 6% from 35.5 cents in 2020.

Stockland (ASX: SGP) announced the appointment of Alison Harropas Chief Financial Officer. Having previously held senior roles at Macquarie Bank, Australia Post and Westpac, Alison joins Stockland after over six years as the Chief Financial Officer of another Australian listed property group.

Upcoming meetings