Mark Francis, Augusta Capital managing director, said the Visy Glass acquisition was Augusta Capital’s third equity raising in New Zealand this year.
“This is indicative of the strong investor appetite for funds underpinned by quality assets delivering robust yields against the current low interest rate environment,” Mr Francis said.
Centuria is not the only investor to be attracted to Visy as a blue-chip, long-term industrial tenant.
In July Charter Hall swooped on three industrial properties as part of a sale-and-leaseback deal that coincided with the acquisition of the Australasian glass bottle manufacturing assets of US group Owens-Illinois by Visy.
Mr Pratt’s Visy group swooped on the manufacturing assets for $733 million after Owens-Illinois decided to bow out of the Australasian market as the biggest glass bottle maker after 22 years.
The latest industrial deal in New Zealand comes off the back of another sale-and-leaseback deal Centuria undertook in August, with the $416.7 million acquisition of a Telstra data centre on Melbourne’s outskirts, which the telecommunications company will lease back for 30 years.
Centuria’s other joint chief executive, John Bain, said the group had upgraded its earnings per share guidance by 9.1 per cent to between 11.5¢ and 12.5¢ per security, as a result of additional earnings associated with its growth of assets under management.
