Charter Hall raises A$200m for core-plus Australia fund

Charter Hall Group, the Australian property company, has raised an additional A$200m ($205 million) for its Core Plus Office Fund via the support of domestic and foreign investors, it said today.

The Antipodean listed firm said it had managed to bag another A$100 million on top of the A$100 million of subscriptions that it announced within its annual results published in August. 

CPOF, as the vehicle is known for short, had already attracted investors and contains a portfolio valued at approximately A$1.4 billion, making it the firm’s largest wholesale office fund. It said in a statement that it now had capacity to grow the fund by an additional A$200 million.

The initial A$100 million raised within CPOF was invested in late 2010 for the acquisition of two strategic A-grade central business district assets in Brisbane and Melbourne. Brisbane Square was acquired with Telstra Super in October 2010 in a joint A$318 million transaction, with CPOF also acquiring the remaining 50 percent interest in the A$160 million 570 Bourke Street building in Melbourne.

Charter Hall's joint managing director, David Harrison, welcomed the equity raise and said the firm should be able to deploy the additional equity in the “near term”.

While raising capital for investment in Australia, the company has at the same time been paring down its overseas portfolio.

In August, it sold 14 office properties from the Australian real estate investment trust, Charter Hall Office REIT for $1.71 billion. The buyer was Boston-based private equity real estate firm, Beacon Capital Partners, which fended off competition from up to 13 other public and private real estate firms, including AREA Property Partners, Boston Properties and Highwoods Properties.