Property Funds

Related expertise

Financial Services Regulation & Licensing

We have one of Australia’s leading property fund legal advisory practices. Our team has considerable experience advising property funds and provides highly technical advice that maintains a commercial perspective.

We advise on all stages of a fund’s lifecycle – establishment, listed and unlisted capital raisings, acquisitions, equity financing, debt financing and restructuring. We also assist with the ongoing regulatory and management issues.

We have advised on the largest and most complex property fund transactions. Our clients include Australian Unity, Dexus, EG property funds, KM Property Funds and Newmark.

Experience

Acting for APN Property Group, APN Funds Management and numerous APN Funds for many years. In our role as advisor to APN we have handled the majority of substantial transactions entered into by APN and its Funds during its history. Example transactions include:
- advising in relation to the listing of Industria REIT, which involves the stapling of APN vehicles with a wholesale fund managed by Australand;
- advising in relation to the restructure of its National Storage Property Trust, which involved the stapling of the Trust to National Storage Holdings Limited and the $240 million IPO and listing of National Storage REIT on ASX;
- advising on and managing the IPO and listing on the ASX of the APN/UKA European Retail Trust and advising the Trust on two subsequent non-renounceable accelerated rights offers, as well as extensive continuous compliance and transactional work;
- advising on the restructuring of the APN Property for Income Fund and the APN Property for Income Fund No. 2, including liaising with ASIC and extensive stamp duty advice;
- assisting with numerous transactions relating to the APN National Storage Property Trust, including a significant refinancing in 2010 and various asset acquisitions and divestments;
- assisting with the establishment of numerous wholesale, retail, direct and property securities funds;
- assisting with numerous acquisition and divestment transactions; and
- assisting with compliance and regulatory projects, including in relation to AFSL and AML/CTF compliance.
Advising (ASX-listed) Generation Healthcare REIT on its $23 million institutional placement and rights issue, $11 million institutional placement and $7 million unit purchase plan.
Advising Moelis Australia Asset Management (MAAM) on its first acquisition for the Moelis Australia Property Visa Fund (Visa Fund), the A$21.2m acquisition of Healesville Walk Shopping Centre in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. The Visa Fund manages real estate investments for holders of the Australian Significant Investor Visa.
Advising a sovereign wealth fund cornerstone investor on establishment of (up to) $600 million PrimeAg Agricultural Fund.
Forming, advising on the operations and eventual buyout of a US retail property management joint venture, holding a property portfolio worth approximately US$10 billion.
Advising Australian Unity Funds Management on the merger of the Australian Unity Fifth Commercial Trust with the Australian Unity Office Property Fund, providing investors with the option of liquidity or scrip for scrip rollover.
Advising on the merger by stapling of Arena REIT and (unlisted) Sydney HealthCare Trust (SHCT), including a $20 million redemption offer to SHCT unitholders, to form a new stapled group listed on ASX.
Advising on a series of takeover bids of US-listed property REITs, with transaction values varying between US$1.3 billion to US$6 billion.
Acting on behalf of the issuer of an exchangeable note issue worth $500 million (Singapore listed).
Assisting in establishing the Newmark Property Group, including obtaining an AFSL (and variation) and establishing a wholesale property fund to raise $30million in equity to purchase the Chadstone Lifestyle Centre and the acquisition of 417 St Kilda Road for approximately $83million. This included providing stamp duty and structuring advice for the acquisition of the property assets.
Acting for Plantation Capital in setting up a fund that has sought to raise $80 million for investment in US family office real estate. This involved extensive structuring and tax advice for establishing the fund and managing the establishment of a US-REIT with US counsel to invest in target US property.
Advising Arena Investment Management Limited (formerly Orchard Funds Limited) on the sale of its Australian property funds management business to a Morgan Stanley Investing (MSREI) opportunity fund and the sale by Orchard Diversified Property Fund of fund investments to MSREI for approx. $46 million.