The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System’s real estate arm is investing $3.3 billion to acquire a portfolio of 19 office buildings across Australia.
Oxford Properties Group and Investa Property Group, the Australian company that currently owns the properties, will jointly manage the office portfolio.
“Oxford invests for the long term in global gateway cities with a focus on best-in-class assets in high growth markets,” said Paul Brundage, head of Europe and Asia Pacific at Oxford Properties Group, in a news release. “We see a lot of runway to grow our business in Australia, leveraging the immediate scale created by this transaction. Oxford has a deep and long-held commitment to customers, communities and city building, and we look forward to continuing this tradition and building strong relationships with all stakeholders in the Australian market.”
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This is the pension fund’s second major investment in Australia. In 2016, in jointly acquired a 50-year lease of the Port of Melbourne, the country’s major trade getaway. Oxford Properties noted it plans to sell some of the properties in the portfolio in order to recycle capital for other investments.
In other investment news, the Public Sector Investment Board, along with minority investors and investment firm BC Partners, is selling Antelliq, which provides devices that identify, monitor and track animals, including livestock, fish and pets to Merck & Co. Inc.
The company will pay 2.1 billion euros for full ownership of Antelliq and 1.15 billion euros for its debt, which it plans to repay after the acquisition.
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“Antelliq is one of those rare companies combining market leadership with the ability to drive innovation within their industry ahead of the startup community,” said Przemek Obloj, managing director at the PSP, in a news release. “Following the acquisition of SCR in Israel, Antelliq has developed into a true global leader in animal health and intelligence, utilizing technology and data science rivalling the wearable consumer tech. It has been a highly successful partnership for PSP and we would like to thank and congratulate the entire team at Antelliq and BC Partners for this journey.”