ING Property Trust Acquires Significant Coolstore

NEWS RELEASE I N G P R O P E R T Y T R U S T 1/1
Auckland • Friday 23 December 2005

ING PROPERTY TRUST ACQUIRES SIGNIFICANT COOLSTORE PROPERTY

ING Property Trust (ING) has today announced the acquisition of a modern purpose built coolstore facility in Hastings. The coolstore facility is well positioned to the surrounding horticulture and viticulture that the storage operation services and is one part of a cluster of similar coolstore facilities. The property is delivering an initial yield on purchase price of 9.65% and has a weighted average lease term (WALT) of 7.75 years. The property is leased to a single tenant, Crasborn Supply Limited, a member of a well established group involved in the horticultural industry in New Zealand.

“The relatively high yield on the property reflects the semi specialised nature of the building” said Mr Evans.

The Trust is also completing due diligence on a $17 million food orientated convenience retail centre currently under construction in Manukau City. Due diligence is likely to be completed in January 2006.

On a smaller scale the Trust also announced the acquisition of a small parcel of industrial land adjoining the Trust’s existing asset at 19 Richard Pearse Drive, Auckland, currently leased to Mondiale Freight Services Limited. The acquisition of the land will provide flexibility in the use and future development of the industrial building.

In November the Trust announced its intention to implement a unit purchase plan of $5,000 per unit holder. Work is continuing on the unit purchase plan, however the timing has been deferred to the first quarter of 2006.

ING Property Trust portfolio of 97 buildings, with a total value of more than $800 million is currently 99% occupied.

ING Property Trust is New Zealand’s only truly diversified listed property investor with assets across the retail, industrial and commercial office sectors. The Trust is managed by ING Property Trust Management Limited.

ING Property Trust is one of the leading listed property trusts in New Zealand, investing in a variety of New Zealand commercial, industrial and retail properties. The Trust was first established in 2002 as Paramount Property Trust. It was renamed ING Property Trust when ING (NZ) Limited acquired 50% of the management rights from Symphony Investments Limited (Symphony retains the other 50%). The day-to-day management of the Trust’s portfolio is undertaken by ING. In July 2005, the Trust merged with listed property company, Urbus Properties Limited, creating the second-largest listed property entity on the New Zealand Stock Exchange by market capitalisation.

ENDS

© Scoop Media