Stockland has sold its Melbourne office tower Riverside Plaza to Dexus Wholesale Property Fund for $201.5 million.
The building, which includes newly upgraded retail tenancies that were completed this year, is part of Stockland’s strategic divestments to fund the share buy-back and maintain low levels of debt.
The building was acquired by Stockland in 2000 and in the last four years 60 per cent of its floors have been refurbished. The major tenants in the building include Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) and Primus Telecommunications.
John Schroder, CEO commercial property, said the extensive refurbishments and the anchor tenants made the building an attractive offering.
“This is an outstanding result, which reflects the quality of this building and the hard work that has gone into increasing the value of the asset in recent years,” he said.
“This transaction is part of an ongoing asset sale program, the proceeds of which are being used to fund accretive investment in the share buy-back currently underway, as well as growth in our core businesses.”
Allowances for outstanding incentives totalling $7.9 million will be paid to the purchaser and the net proceeds of $193.6 million represent a premium of $11.6 million or 6.4% to the 30 June 2011 book value of $182.0 million.