Listed real estate investment trusts are more common in Australia than here where most of the listed trust entities have been disbanded when investors bought the managers and the two entities were combined.
BP is offloading the stake in the busy New Zealand petrol stations in a sale and leaseback deal to Charter Hall, which emphasised the length of the leases.
"The portfolio, consisting of the majority of BP's owned convenience retail properties in New Zealand, has been acquired in a sale and leaseback transaction and will have a 20-year weighted average lease expiry at acquisition with initial lease terms of properties in the portfolio ranging from 18 to 22 years," Charter Hall said.
"The portfolio is geographically diversified with 78 per cent of the portfolio in metropolitan locations and 72 per cent located in New Zealand's top three cities, with Auckland representing 51 per cent of the portfolio value," it said.
The Charter Hall managed fund will be owned half by Charter Hall Long WALE REIT and half by Charter Hall Retail REIT.
The fund value is about $262m and represents a 6.25 per cent initial yield.
Completion of the transaction was subject to approval by the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office, Charter Hall said.
David Harrison, managing director and chief executive of Charter Hall said: "This off-market transaction further extends our relationship with BP, builds upon the success of our Australian partnership and demonstrates our conviction in NNN leased Long WALE convenience retail."
Charter Hall says it has more than 30 years of experience in property investment and funds management.
"We're one of Australia's leading fully integrated property groups. We use our property expertise to access, deploy, manage and invest equity across our core sectors – office, retail, industrial and logistics, and social infrastructure," it said.
It has A$41.8 billion in diverse portfolios of more than 1300 long-leased properties.
"Partnership and financial discipline are at the heart of our approach. Acting in the best interest of customers and communities, we combine insight and inventiveness to unlock hidden value. Taking a long term view, our A$6.8 billion development pipeline delivers sustainable, technologically enabled projects for our customers," it says.
The Long WALE REIT of Charter Hall will launch a A$70m equity raising mainly via an institutional placement to go ahead with its investment in the petrol stations and retail properties.
The New Zealand deal is not a big surprise because it follows Charter Hall's move on Australian petrol stations.
In December, it took a 49 per cent interest in an even larger portfolio of stations there. The Australian BP portfolio was valued at around A$1.7b and saw the sale of 225 retail properties, mostly in metro or commuter metro locations on the eastern seaboard.
Comment on the New Zealand deal has been sought from BP.
