- Jobs figures helps market recovery
- AQR made $35.5M in acquisitions in South Australia
- ACU acquired balance of ACU WA
As positive employment figures were released, the market moved northward, contrasting the Wednesday fall which made El Capitan look like a gradual hillock.
The second half of this week didn’t see much activity, Acumentis (ASX: ACU) and APN Convenience Retail REIT (ASX: AQR) the only significant property stories.
The mid-week wrap can be found here.
The broader market
Wednesday saw one of the sharpest drops in the market for a while, the drop followed a number of overseas and domestic movements.
Following better than expected jobs figures yesterday, the market trended upward, recovering much of the losses from the day prior. Today (Friday) the market continued its upward movement, with positive retail figures adding, albeit not by much, to that renewed confidence in the Australian economy.
None of the top five performing companies were in real estate, with the top spot going to EML Payments – the company’s stocks having tanked two days ago.
The remaining four were A2 Milk (ASX: A2M), Webjet (ASX: WEB), Xero (ASX: XRO), and Corporate Travel Management (ASX: CTD).
At the close of trading, the ASX had largely recovered from Wednesday’s losses. The ASX said that “over the last five days, the index is virtually unchanged, but is currently +1.99% below its 52-week high.”
At today’s end of week close, the top-performing real estate companies were:
Top-performing ASX listed real estate companies
| Company | Code | Price ($) | Change (%) |
| Ultima United | UUL | 0.795 | +4.61 |
| Acumentis | ACU | 0.12 | +4.35 |
| Arena REIT | ARF | 3.49 | +2.35 |
| GARDA | GDF | 1.325 | +2.32 |
| HomeCo Daily Needs REIT | HDN | 1.33 | +2.31 |
Source: ASX
The movement
Yesterday saw Acumentis (ASX: ACU) acquire the balance of the Acumentis WA (ACU WA).
The remaining 57.8% of ACU WA is expected to be acquired by Acumentis for between $2.6 million to $3.9 million. This deal follows the ACU acquisition of Tasmanian valuations company Saunders & Pitt in March.
Acumentis values ACU WA at “4.5x annual PBT plus net cash balances at 30 June 2021” and said the total acquisition price is set to a minimum of $2.6 million and a maximum of $3.9 million.
Today, APN Convenience Retail REIT (ASX: AQR) announced six acquisitions in South Australia, only last week the company acquired six Queensland properties.
Totalling $35.5 million, the fuel station and convenience retail acquisitions consist of properties on leaseback to South Australian brand OTR.
Following the purchase, the AQR portfolio will comprise 103 properties worth circa $655 million.
Finally, Centuria Capital Group (ASX: CNI) and Primewest (ASX: PWG) gave notice that the defeating condition to the takeover bid had been fulfilled.
In a statement, Centuria said, “… we hereby give notice that the condition to the Centuria Offer set out in Section 2 of Appendix 2 (Primewest Option holders) of Centuria’s bidder’s statement… has been fulfilled.”
That’s this week in ASX listed real estate, where APN Convenience Retail REIT spent $35.5 million on six assets attached to a South Australian icon, but I for one would much prefer 342 bottles of another Adelaide icon, Penfold’s 1951 Hermitage Grange.
