Gaw Capital Partnership Buying Goodman Sydney Warehouses for $56M

Gaw Capital Partners is growing its regional logistics portfolio with a deal to purchase a portfolio of Sydney industrial properties from Goodman Group for A$87 million ($56 million), according to sources familiar with the transaction who spoke with Mingtiandi.

The Hong Kong-based private equity firm is buying a trio of industrial properties measuring 22,106 square metres (237,947 square feet) in Sydney’s suburbs together with Box Capital, a local industrial advisor and investment manager helmed by managing director Matthew Woodman as part of a value-add partnership which the two companies expect to expand in the future.

“We are very pleased to cooperate with Matt and his talented team on the ground to capture the tremendous opportunities in the years ahead,” said Gaw Capital managing director Joseph Chan, a principal with the company’s investment division. “These assets’ unique specifications and value-add potential align with our commitment to build a best-in-class urban infill logistics portfolio. We look forward to further scaling the strategy in 2025.”

The logistics buy follows Gaw investments in Australia’s residential and alternative energy sectors this year, as well as the company’s establishment of a private credit joint venture in August.

More Scale on the Way

The acquisitions gives Gaw one shed each in Wetherill Park and Arndell Park, west of Sydney and in Lane Cove on the Lower North Shore, with the partners planning to upgrade the properties, which have a weighted average lease expiry term by income of around a half-year.

“Each of the properties are located in key industrial markets and have various short-term repositioning and active value-add opportunities,” Box Capital’s Woodman said in a LinkedIn post.

Together the three assets occupy 36,838 square metres of land, with the Goodman Properties said by local brokers to have drawn a number of bids from both local and overseas investors. Goodman Group had not yet replied to inquiries from Mingtiandi by the time of publication. The deal values the properties at just under A$3936 per square metre of built area.

Goodman was represented in the sale by both Colliers and CBRE, with the brokers pointing to the properties’ rapidly expiring leases as providing opportunities to boost rents.

Gaw, which also invests in logistics in China, Vietnam, Japan and other Asia Pacific markets, is buying into Sydney’s industrial sector at a time when some analysts see lower interest rates providing potential for improved returns.

“Sydney remains a highly landconstrained market, which will maintain pressure on land values over the medium to long term,” Cushman & Wakefield said in its third quarter report on the city’s industrial sector. “This has been highlighted over the past two years, with values holding steady despite softening yields.”

The property consultancy added that, “Over the short term, potential rate cuts and moderating bond yields highlight the value upside for (logistics and industrial) capital markets.”

Gaw Deals Continue

Gaw Capital’s industrial commitment comes after the company in August established a A$500 million private credit venture through a partnership with Sydney-based real estate investment manager Ray White Capital.

The partners pointed to opportunities to provide mezzanine loans and senior credit to real estate opportunities in Australia as some banks have reduced lending to the sector.

In June, Gaw Capital bet on Australia’s residential sector with an A$800 million joint venture with local player GreenFort Capital to acquire and develop land lease community projects (the Down Under version of mobile home parks) aimed at pensioners.

That housing deal came after Gaw Capital in January teamed up with Singaporean maritime and energy company BW Group to commit more than A$2 billion to a battery energy storage joint venture in Australia.