Charter Hall Buys Brisbane Pathology Hub for $445m in Leaseback Deal

Fund manager Charter Hall has bought Sonic Healthcare’s life science facility in the inner Brisbane suburb of Bowen Hills for $445 million in a 20-year sale-and-leaseback transaction.

The deal, which settled this week, is for the Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology laboratory at 24 Markwell Street.

Charter Hall will initially pay $25-million-a-year in rent. Inflation-indexed rental increases that cannot exceed 3.5 per cent a year are built into the 20-year lease, with Sonic having an option to extend after that.

Charter Hall managing director David Harrison said the deal aligned with the firm’s strategy to invest in essential service assets.

“We see this new Sonic Healthcare relationship expanding our investment grade corporate relationships with excellent long term secure cash flows for our investor customers,” he said.

ASX-listed Sonic is the world’s third-largest pathology provider, with operations spanning Australasia, Europe and North America across laboratory medicine, radiology and primary care services.

▲ The Bowen Hills property sold for $445 million with an initial leaseback deal of $25 million a year.

The purpose-built facility is near the Brisbane CBD and hospitals.

It is the central pathology testing hub for a network that receives daily samples from more than 450 collection centres and more than 20 laboratories across Queensland, northern New South Wales and the Northern Territory.

The company is considering further sale and leaseback transactions at some of its other sites.