Goldman Sachs Buys 7 Aussie Last-Mile Logistics Properties for Reported $133M

The alternatives platform of Goldman Sachs Asset Management has acquired seven last-mile logistics properties in Australia, as strong e-commerce trends continue to support warehouse leasing demand Down Under.

The portfolio’s properties are located near high-capacity urban highways in key population centres of Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, Goldman Sachs Alternatives said Tuesday in a release. The assets span 65,300 square metres (702,883 square feet) of leasable space and are occupied by e-commerce, transport, wholesale, 3PL and other last-mile tenants.

The fund manager plans to upgrade and scale the portfolio, which was assembled by Aussie investor Fife Capital, through additional acquisitions. No financial details were disclosed, but The Australian newspaper reported a deal value of around A$200 million ($132.5 million). A Goldman representative couldn’t confirm the figure.

“Logistics is an attractive sector, which benefits from demographic trends and technological advancements,” said Nikhil Reddy, head of Asia Pacific real estate at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. “Australia is especially compelling for value creation because it is supported by economic and population growth, alongside historically limited supply.”

Familiar Themes

Despite Australia’s e-commerce penetration rate rising from 9 percent pre-pandemic to its current 13.4 percent, there remains scope for further growth, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The consultancy cited a relatively underpenetrated market compared with other global markets.

Market sources informed Mingtiandi that Goldman Sachs’ investment in the portfolio was brokered off-market by Cushman & Wakefield’s Tony Iuliano and Adrian Rowse, with representatives of the company declining to comment on the deal.

Goldman’s previous Australian logistics ventures include the PropertyLink Australian Industrial Partnership, a 75:25 JV with Sydney-based investment manager PropertyLink.

The partners acquired a portfolio of secondary, value-add industrial properties and later listed PAIP on the Australian Securities Exchange, raising more than A$500 million as a pure-play industrial REIT. In 2018, Hong Kong-listed ESR bought out PropertyLink in a deal valuing the firm at over A$723 million.

Goldman has allocated A$6.2 billion to industrial assets, commercial properties and data centres in Australia since 2017 and deployed more than A$13 billion in alternative investments since 2012.

Other global investors upping their commitment to Australia’s logistics market this year include PGIM Real Estate, which teamed with Elanor Investors Group to buy a last-mile logistics site near Melbourne, and private equity giant Blackstone, which acquired a Sydney industrial complex from Charter Hall for A$55.75 million.

Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs Alternatives has teamed with Dalfen Industrial, an investment manager specialising in the acquisition, development and operation of last-mile properties in North America, and Newdock, a logistics management and investment platform focused on developing and managing logistics spaces across Europe.

Fundraising Muscle

Last month, Goldman Sachs Alternatives announced the final close of its third real estate secondaries fund with total commitments of $3.4 billion, representing the firm’s largest-ever such vehicle.

That milestone came a month after Goldman Sachs Alternatives announced the final close of West Street Real Estate Credit Partners IV and related vehicles with more than $7 billion in real estate lending capacity including leverage.

Also in May, Goldman revealed that it had raised more than $20 billion for senior direct lending with the final close of its West Street Loan Partners V. The vehicle aims to take advantage of an expected pickup in M&A activity as private equity dry powder hits an all-time high and sponsors seek to return capital to investors.

As of March, the New York-based banking giant had more than $2.8 trillion in assets under supervision globally.