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100 Market Street is the office portion of the Westfield Sydney complex (Image: Westfield Centres)<\/p>\n
Hong Kong\u2019s Link Real Estate Investment Trust has agreed to sell a 50 percent stake in 100 Market Street, an office tower in central Sydney, to Aware Super for A$225.9 million ($158 million), as Asia\u2019s largest REIT presses ahead with a campaign to trim its overseas office holdings.<\/p>\n
The Hong Kong-listed trust disclosed in a filing after trading hours on Tuesday that two of its Australian subsidiaries have signed agreements with a vehicle owned by the Australian pension fund to sell half of the units and shares in the entities holding the 10-storey, 28,339 square metre tower in a deal which values the entire property at A$451.75 million.<\/p>\n
The price marks 33 percent markdown from the A$683 million Link paid Blackstone for the same tower<\/a> in December 2019, when the acquisition marked the trust\u2019s first push beyond Greater China, and falls short of the more than A$500 million that Sydney brokers were floating for the asset<\/a> when Aware Super\u2019s interest in the property first surfaced in local media in May.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going back-to-basics to focus on our strength in owning and managing retail assets in Asia Pacific,\u201d John Saunders, Link\u2019s chief investment officer John Saunders said in a release, adding that the trust would use proceeds from the sale for unit buybacks and reinvestment in its retail portfolio.<\/p>\n The disposal extends a run of overseas exits for Link, which has been shedding assets from Singapore to the UK to fund unit buybacks and redeploy capital into its core Asian retail portfolio as its distributable income comes under pressure.<\/p>\n Central Sydney Tower<\/p>\n 100 Market Street is a 10-storey, A-grade tower with 28,339 square metres (305,000 square feet) of net lettable area, built into the Westfield Sydney complex that also includes the Sydney Tower and two neighbouring office buildings on Castlereagh Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Saunders, executive director and chief investment officer of Link REIT\u2019s manager (Image: LAML)<\/p>\n Three tenants fill the building: Scentre Group, the ASX-listed operator of the Westfield network and the tower\u2019s former owner; ASIC, Australia\u2019s corporate regulator; and the Future Fund, the country\u2019s sovereign wealth fund.<\/p>\n The property carries a 5.5-star NABERS Energy rating and sits on a leasehold site which has around 292 years remaining to its property rights.<\/p>\n Link is selling the stake through two separate but linked agreements. Link Australia Holdings Pty Ltd is offloading half the units in Market Mid Trust, the vehicle that holds the property, while a second Link entity, Joy Success Developments Limited, is selling half the shares in the trust\u2019s corporate trustees.<\/p>\n The two linked deals require clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which is expected within six months of signing, with a possible three-month extension. Link\u2019s Australian press release<\/a> estimates that the deal will complete in the third quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n The A$225.9 million price tag equals half of CBRE\u2019s appraised value for the tower, A$451.75 million as of end-May. After roughly A$3.1 million in expenses, Link expects to pocket net proceeds of about A$222.7 million. The sale nudges Link REIT\u2019s pro-forma debt-to-assets ratio up marginally, from about 25.6 percent to 25.8 percent.<\/p>\n Link will lose majority control of the property once the deal closes, however, its Australian management arm keeps running the building under a new management agreement, and the two sides will oversee the asset jointly through a four-person board split evenly between them, with unanimous consent required on major decisions.<\/p>\n From Blackstone Buy to Office Retreat<\/p>\n Link paid Blackstone-managed funds A$683 million for 100 Market Street<\/a> in December 2019, completing the purchase in April 2020. The deal was the trust\u2019s first acquisition outside Greater China.<\/p>\n Then-CEO George Hongchoy pitched it as the start of a broader diversification push, targeting up to 10 percent of Link REIT\u2019s assets in gateway markets including Australia, Singapore, Japan and the UK. Around the same time, Link picked up a 50 percent stake in three Sydney retail assets \u2014 Queen Victoria Building, The Strand Arcade and The Galeries \u2014 for A$538.2 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n That expansion has since gone into reverse. With property income under pressure<\/a>, Link has been selling down overseas holdings, including Swing By Thomson Plaza in Singapore<\/a>. CIO John Saunders has cast the pivot as a \u201cback-to-basics\u201d focus on retail assets across Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore and Australia.<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/John-Saunders-Link-REIT-e1750338626120.jpeg\")
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