MA Financial Outlays $678m for Queensland’s Hyperdome

A major retail asset in South-East Queensland will change hands under the second largest deal for the sector this year.

MA Financial Group will acquire Hyperdome Town Centre at Loganholme for $678.7 million from QIC Real Estate.

The 44ha site includes the Hyperdome Shopping Centre, Hyperdome Home Centre, multiple peripheral properties and about 9ha of surplus land.

The centre is 98 per cent leased and anchored by Coles, Woolworths and ALDI.

The Hyperdome opened in 1989 and has more than 180 specialty stores.

The purchase price implies a fully leased yield of about 7.25 per cent.

QIC Real Estate has owned the entire asset since 2013, when it acquired the remaining 50 per cent stake from John Longhurst for about $336 million.

It first bought into the asset in 1996 when it acquired a half stake for $131 million.

Under QIC’s ownership, the centre received a major refurbishment of its North Mall around 2020. QIC, the Queensland Investment Corporation, is a state government-owned investment company.

MA Financial plans to reposition parts of the site, activate previously underused space and sell surplus land to developers.

The deal takes MA Financial’s total retail real estate transactions to $1.2 billion since it acquired IP Generation this year.

MA Financial said it had raised $405 million of equity through a high-net-worth syndicate fund to finance the acquisition. The fund has closed early and is fully subscribed.

▲ The Hyperdome Shopping Centre was included in $678-million deal, the second biggest retail transaction this year.

The group will manage the centre, including property and development management, however, QIC will assist in managing some aspects of the asset, MA Financial said.

The acquisition is expected to settle in December. Following settlement, MA Financial will have assets under management of $14.7 billion.

The group manages investments across private credit, real estate, and hospitality, lending to property, corporate, and specialty finance sectors.

It has a workforce of more than 800 people across Australia, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and the US.

The acquisition comes in a year of big deals for retail assets, topped by the sale of Westpoint Shopping Centre at Blacktown in NSW for about $900 million in January.

The deal was the largest individual retail asset transaction recorded in Australia.

The buyer was Hines, in partnership with Haben Property Fund, and was Hines’ first major retail acquisition in the Asia-Pacific.

The vendor was also QIC.

And in October, MA Financial and Keppel REIT paid $525 million to a private consortium for a 75 per cent stake in Top Ryde City in Sydney.

The largest retail sale in Australia was in 2015 when UniSuper, Cbus Property and AMP Capital Retail Trust paid around $2.2 billion for the Gold Coast’s Pacific Fair and a 50 per cent stake in the Macquarie Centre in Sydney.