- CIMIC reached a milestone in the Devine takeover
- RFF to raise $100M for macadamia development and other acquisitions
- Primewest acquired NSW almond orchard for $54M
The cows came home after a long week, with some potentially eyeing greener pastures in Rural Funds Group’s portfolio.
Unfortunately, lockdown extensions and Covid restrictions continued to cast a long shadow over the country. That shadow extended over the ASX too, dragging it down.
The broader market
Today the market closed 0.93% lower at 7,273.30 points. Through the day it lost much more, at one point 1.30% lower than Thursday.
For the week, the market was down 0.48% or 35.50 points; having opened at 7,308.60 points this week.
Lendlease Group (ASX: LLC) was in the top five performers, fourth after Viva Energy, NRW Holdings, and APA Group. Building products company CSR Group was in the bottom five performers.
The top-performing ASX listed real estate companies were (delayed information meant LLC should be at the top):
Top-performing ASX listed real estate companies
| Company | Code | Price | Change (%) |
| Centuria Capital | CNI | 2.99 | +3.82 |
| Australian Unity Office Fund | AOF | 2.45 | +2.08 |
| Lendlease | LLC | 11.66 | +1.83 |
| US Masters Residential Property Fund | URF | 0.305 | +1.67 |
| 360 Capital | TGP | 0.92 | +1.66 |
Source: ASX
In addition to the top performers, the bottom five (from fifth lowest to lowest) were:
Top-performing ASX listed real estate companies
| Company | Code | Price | Change (%) |
| REA Group | REA | 165.08 | -2.60 |
| HomeCo | HMC | 5.36 | -2.90 |
| Domain | DHG | 5.21 | -3.16 |
| Rural Funds Group | RFF | 2.49 | -3.72 |
| CSR | CSR | 5.23 | -6.61 |
Source: ASX
The movement
ASX-listed real estate companies started the week with news Town Centre Victoria Point in Queensland had been acquired by HomeCo Daily Needs REIT (ASX: HDN).
While the acquisition will cost $160 million, stamp duty comes in at $9 million, transaction costs $3 million, bringing the total cost to $172 million. HDN said it will raise $70 million from an institutional placement, the remainder coming from debt.
Monday also saw REA Group (ASX: REA) complete the Mortgage Choice acquisition, and Centuria Industrial REIT (ASX: CIP) settled its Wetherill Park, Epping, and Broadmeadows acquisitions.
On Tuesday, Abacus (ASX: ABP) added five more self-storage assets to its portfolio, all currently managed by Storage King. The assets are located in Chatswood, Artarmon, St Leonards, Dee Why, and Pymble. The acquisition was worth $160 million.
HDN also successfully completed the $70 million institutional placement.
On Wednesday, Devine (ASX: DVN) announced that the minimum acceptable conditions for the CIMIC takeover of Devine had been met. CIMIC had acquired 143,055,425 shares in Devine, making the relevant interest 90.12%.
Following the fulfilment of the condition, CIMIC is now entitled to proceed to compulsorily acquire shares not acquired under its offer.
Australian Unity Office Fund (ASX: AOF) announced portfolio valuations came in at $639 million, representing a like for like reduction of $10.7 million.
In the update, AOF also said that following a strategic assessment, a potential merger with Australian Unity Diversified Property Fund (DPF) was floated. No further details were available.
Australian Unity Limited (ASX: AYU) finalised the Greengate purchase made in May this year. The purchase was worth $65 million.
Investors approached Sydney Airport (ASX: SYD), intending to take over the company at $8.25 per share. The unsolicited, indicative, conditional and non-binding proposal comes from a consortium of infrastructure investors, to acquire, by way of scheme of arrangement and trust scheme.
Finally, on Wednesday, Primewest went nuts for almonds when it acquired a $54 million NSW almond orchard.
Thursday saw news another company had a nutty penchant, Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF) announced a $100 million raise to fund macadamia developments, a potential cattle property acquisition, and water entitlements acquisitions.
Dexus (ASX: DXS) announced it had removed DIT, DOT, and DDF from the official list, and settled the 1 Bligh Street acquisition.
Finally, today, Abacus (ASX: ABP) announced portfolio valuations, the company saw gains of $140 million, or a 4.5% increase in the preliminary draft valuations.
Abacus preliminary draft valuations
The unaudited valuations are expected to increase the Group’s pro forma net tangible assets (NTA) by circa $0.17 per security to $3.43, an increase of 5.2 % on the 31 December 2020 NTA.
That’s all for this week in ASX listed real estate, where one company set up signs to form one lane, another floated the idea, and another went into self-storage.
