Charter Hall Retail REIT raises $235 million for Long WALE Hardware Partnership from institutional investors and recycles $33 million equity investment

03/12/2014

Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) (Charter Hall or the Group) today announced the expansion of its Bunnings partnerships (now called the Long WALE Hardware Partnership "LWHP") by securing an additional $185 million institutional partner, which combined with a $50 million increase in equity commitment from the initial institutional partner, provides a total increased equity commitment of $235 million.

Charter Hall continues to manage LWHP and has today sold a $33 million stake in BP2 and the Keperra Square Trust, established in June 2013 with the acquisition of the $65 million Keperra Square shopping centre.

Charter Hall has now reduced its equity investment by $33 million to $38 million in these combined trusts that own or have committed to $400 million of Bunnings hardware assets and the Keperra Square shopping centre.

LWHP now has a total equity commitment value of $418 million, which provides for growth capacity of a further $300 million beyond the current $400 million existing portfolio value.

Charter Hall's Joint Managing Director, David Harrison, said: "We are pleased to continue the momentum of our strategy to secure equity to invest in high quality, long WALE assets. The extension of our strong relationship with two domestic institutional investors will drive our expanded market penetration into the hardware sector. The recycled cash will immediately provide investment capacity for the Charter Hall balance sheet to further expand investments".

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