Abacus Diversified Income Fund has purchased the landmark BASF site on Princes Highway, Noble Park in Melbourne's south-east for $17.75 million.
The tender campaign was conducted by CB Richard Ellis. Pinnacle Property Group acted as Transaction Manager and adviser to BASF
The property is located at 500 Princes Highway and consists of three main buildings including a multi level office with a floor area of 4,913 sqm, a distribution warehouse of 6643 sqm and a laboratory of 1271 sqm.
The BASF complex was constructed in 1991 to serve as the BASF head office in Australia and New Zealand.
BASF will lease back the office component for a term of seven years.
The warehouse is occupied by Patrick Distribution, which has an unexpired lease term of approximately four years, whilst the laboratory is leased to Boron Molecular until September 2007.
Total net income at settlement will be approximately $1,556,931, which will deliver an initial yield to the purchaser of 8.8%.
Abacus Diversified Income Fund now has assets of approximately $100 million. The Fund is managed by the listed Abacus Property Group, which manages total assets in excess of $600 million.
Earlier this month, Abacus announced an increase in distribution for the quarter ending December 31st of 5.6%, from 2.65 to 2.8 cents per security. The record date for determining entitlement to the Abacus Property Group distribution for the quarter ending December 31st 2003 is 5.00 pm on the same day. Payment of the distribution is on or about 12 February 2004.
Highlights for Abacus for the last financial year include:
Other highlights of the Group’s performance during 2003 were:
• Profit increased to $33.8 million – $4.8 million or 16% above the forecast provided in the October 2002 prospectus.
• Earnings per security increased to 13.9 cents – 18% above forecast.
• The distribution of 10.5 cents per security represented a 7.7% increase on the prior year.
• Net tangible assets per security increased to 95 cents per security – compared to the forecast 90.3 cents.
• Retained earnings increased to $9.78 million – more than three times the forecast $2.9 million. Of this amount, over $2.8 million is Trust reserves while the remaining $7.0 million is retained by the Company.
• Gearing reduced from 48.8% to 26.2% at balance date, and has been reduced further since then.
• Total assets increased from $338 million to $414 million, and total assets under management grew to in excess of $550 million.
