Charter Hall's Direct Industrial Fund No.4 Acquires Long Leased Canberra Property

The Charter Hall managed Charter Hall Direct Industrial Fund No.4 (DIF4 or Fund) has announced the acquisition of 34-42 Sheppard St, Hume, ACT for $34.0 million.

The recently refurbished property is a modern distribution facility comprising 15,671 sqm across three buildings on 2.89 ha of land.

The property is 94% leased to Recall Information Management (Iron Mountain) and the Commonwealth Government, both existing tenant customers of Charter Hall. Recall Information Management occupy 12,325 sqm until 2037 with options to extend, while the Commonwealth Government occupy 2,144 sqm until 2022. The property has a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 14.6 years and weighted average rent reviews of 3.2% pa.

Charter Hall Direct CEO, Mr Steven Bennett said “The acquisition of 34-42 Sheppard St is consistent with DIF4’s strategy of acquiring well located, quality distribution centres with long WALE, leased to strong tenant covenants.”

“We were able to acquire the property off-market which is a testament to the ability of Charter Hall to access quality deals for our funds in a highly competitive industrial market” said Mr Bennett.

The property is located within the industrial precinct of Hume, one of the ACT's best performing industrial areas. The property has excellent transport access being situated just off the Monaro Highway, a major highway link between Canberra and Southern NSW, that also provides efficient access to the wider highway network.

Charter Hall Direct Industrial Fund No.4 now comprises 10 industrial and logistics properties, with a WALE of 10.3 years, and benefits from 99% occupancy.

Gross assets of DIF4 now total $409 million and the Fund is expected to grow to over $500 million as additional equity is raised and deployed. DIF4 is currently open for investment from retail, HNW and SMSF investors.

“The Fund is benefiting from strong equity inflows as investors are attracted to the quality of the industrial portfolio, the Fund’s current distribution yield of 6.2% pa and the monthly distributions paid to investors” said Mr Bennett.