AustralianSuper makes a play for US property market

AustralianSuper makes a play for US property marketA strategic partnership with QIC sees AustralianSuper investing close to $1.1 billion in the world’s largest open-air shopping centre in Honolulu.AustralianSuper has purchased a 25 per cent stake in Ala Moana Center, facilitating a partnership with the seller, American company General Growth Properties, which will retain 75 per cent ownership of the Honolulu shopping centre. The transaction places the value of Ala Moana, which has 2.2 million square feet (195,000 sqm) of retail space, at approximately US$5.5 billion.In late 2013, AustralianSuper awarded institutional investment manager QIC “an open-ended mandate from AustralianSuper to seek out investment opportunities in prime US retail properties”.The super fund’s deputy chief executive and chief investment officer, Mark Delaney, said the deal demonstrates how the super fund’s size and scale (it manages more than $84 billion for more than two million members) “allows Australians to be a part of global investment opportunities to which they might not otherwise have access”.Delaney said the super fund will continue its search for “appropriate opportunities to expand and improve” its property portfolio over the coming months.AustralianSuper will pay approximately $8 million upon signing the deal. However, the balance will be paid late next year, according to the super fund, following completion of a major expansion and redevelopment of Ala Moana Center.The deal occurs as AustralianSuper implements a direct property investment strategy with global and domestic partners, Delaney said, with a view to ensuring “the fund is well positioned to find and invest in valuable opportunities in a variety of sectors and locations”.AustralianSuper’s property assets, including Ala Moana Center, are valued at $7 billion, and the super fund aims to allocate approximately 10 per cent of its assets to property investments in the next three to four years.