Mirvac to sell two New South Wales hotel resorts

An AAP report says that the Mirvac Group is selling its investment in two hotel resorts in New South Wales, allowing two unlisted property developers that already hold 45% to take full control.

The two four-star hotels are at Port Stephens, just north of Newcastle, and in Southern Highlands at Sutton Forest and are run by Peppers Leisure Ltd but owned by the Australian share market-listed Australian Hotel Fund (AHF).

AHF is a fund overseen by the Mirvac subsidiary Hotel Capital Partners Ltd (HCP), with Mirvac Group’s Mirvac Capital Investments Pty Ltd holds a 19.9% stake in the AHF.

Two private developers, Barana Capital Pty Ltd, and Toga Investments Pty Ltd, control Tobar Trust, which already owns 45% of the hotels and wants to buy the remaining 55%.

Tobar Trust made the $22.17 million offer for full ownership as Mirvac announced on Tuesday it had sold five US properties for $US19.32 million ($A22.5 million).

The offer from Tobar Trust is for 44.25 cents for each issued unit.

Hotel Capital Partners directors said they supported the offer, which came after the sale of an AHF-owned hotel resort near Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of NSW, with Mirvac Funds Management chief executive Grant Hodgetts saying. “We believe the Tobar offer, in the absence of a superior proposal, maximises the value of the (fund’s) unitholders who recently received a 48 cents capital return from the sale of the Fairmont resort.”

The conditional bid came as Mirvac Funds Management Ltd, the responsible entity of Mirvac Industrial Trust, said it had completed the sale of five properties from the trust’s Chicago-based portfolio for $US19.32 million.

The combined profit from the transactions was $US1.63 million and the transactions all settled before June 30.

Further terms had been agreed to sell other US properties, in Indiana, for $US18.85 million to the Read Property Group.

The transaction was forecast to deliver a profit of $US2.55 million, with settlement expected no later than 31 July.

The trust’s management said it was working on the identification and acquisition of suitable replacement assets that “accord with the trust’s portfolio objectives”.

Mirvac is an Australian stock exchange-listed property group with more than $24.7 billion of development under its control across the real estate, funds management and development sectors.

Mirvac’s stapled securities closed down 16 cents at $5.43, and AHF finished up six cents or 16.67 per cent at 42 cents.

Report by The Mole