PNB sells Brisbane office building for A$370m

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 7): Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) has sold Santos Place, a prime-grade office building at 32 Turbot Street, Brisbane, Australia for A$370 million (RM1.14 billion).

According to a report by Tom Barr, national director at Colliers International Capital Markets, Santos Place was acquired by Charter Hall on behalf of GIC, the Singapore government sovereign wealth fund.

“This sale represents the first highly competitive on-market test for Brisbane CBD prime-grade pricing benchmarks since the sale of Waterfront Place in 2015, and achieved the highest price of any single office asset to have traded in Brisbane over the last two years,” Barr wrote in his report.

Santos Place was acquired in 2010 for A$290 million and was PNB’s first offshore property investment.

In September, Australian media reported that PNB was putting its asset in Queensland’s capital city on the market. It was also reported that the sale could net the fund manager up to A$400 million.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the building “sits in a prime location with more than A$11 billion of investment in the immediate precinct including the Cross River Rail project, Brisbane Live ultra-entertainment precinct, Brisbane Quarter mixed-use development, and Queens Wharf Integrated Resort Development”.