OIO Approval granted for acquisition of shopping centres

Media Release
1 August 2016

OIO Approval granted for acquisition of Chartwell and Queensgate shopping centres

Stride Property Group (Stride), through the wholesale investment vehicle, Diversified NZ Property Trust (Diversified), has today been granted approval by the Overseas Investment Office to acquire the Westfield Queensgate shopping centre, Wellington, and the Westfield Chartwell shopping centre, Hamilton.

Stride announced in November 2015 that Diversified had entered into an agreement with entities owned by Scentre Group to acquire the shopping centres in a deal worth $445 million.

Diversified’s property portfolio is managed by Stride Investment Management Limited (SIML), part of the Stride Property Group. Stride Property Group was created in July 2016 following a strategic demerger of the company’s real estate investment management operations and its large format retail assets from its property investment business.

Stride’s Chief Executive Peter Alexander said the acquisition was great news for the business and supported the expansion of its Real Estate Investment Management activities.

“On completion of the sale, Stride will take over management of the shopping centres under its 10-year contract to manage the Diversified Fund,” he said.

On settlement day new-look branding will be unveiled at each of the centres.

“The new branding has been specifically designed to incorporate the unique aspects of each of the local communities, and we’re excited to see the response from visitors to the centres. As with all of our properties, we’re looking forward to working closely with our local team of management, staff, tenants and suppliers to make sure we get to know our customers and the wider community well, so we can continually enhance the overall experience at the centres over time,” said Mr Alexander.

Stride expects to complete the deal by 22 August 2016.

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