South West servos sell for $34m

Federal government-backed agency Indigenous Business Australia has purchased two adjacent petrol stations on Forrest Highway south of Perth for $34 million from Perth-based investment group Security Capital Australia.

Security Capital sold the two properties west of Pinjarra on a combined yield of 6.35 per cent, with Dawkins Occhiuto and Savills managing the sale.

Completed in 2017, the two facilities – Midway Northbound and Midway Southbound – were sold with 20 year anchor leases to Caltex, along with a food court and five tenancies each, producing a net passing income of $1 million per annum  each on a weighted average lease expiry of 15.4 years.

Dawkins Occhiuto director Chris Jones said Security Capital had noted the recent uplift in investment sentiment in the state.

“Security Capital took the opportunity to put the properties to market at a time when mining exploration expenditure in WA is rising and investors are looking to take advantage of the positive growth prospects that will follow,” he said.

“Mining remains a significant economic driver in WA and so with any increase in  expenditure in the sector we see concomitant across the board growth and that includes the industrial and logistics sectors in particular.”

Mr Jones said the circa 60,000 square metre sites also offered surplus land of approximately 25,000 square metres suitable for further development

“We expected a strong market response and the result reflected that with competition from  local and off-shore buyers at a time when blue chip investments have become increasingly hard to find,” he said.

IBA is a government-backed organisation focused on improving indigenous involvement in the business community.

The agency has a current investment portfolio valued at $279.6 million, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander investors owning, in aggregate, equity interests of $108.8 million.

IBA took a 50 per cent stake in Carnegie Clean Energy’s $17 million Northam solar farm in November last year.