JY Group has acquired a 50 per cent stake in Westfield Whitford City in Western Australia from Singaporean sovereign fund GIC for $195 million.
GIC’s exit from Westfield Whitford City comes a few years after it sold a half-stake in three Sydney CBD shopping malls to Hong Kong-based real estate investment trust Link REIT in a deal worth $538.2 million back in 2021, and has since then sold out of Chatswood Chase in Sydney too.
The latest deal was finalised after Westfield owner Scentre Group passed up the opportunity to exercise its rights to take full control of the centre. It held its own 50 per cent stake in Whitford City, which it manages, at $230m at the end of June.
The purchase takes the privately held JY Group’s property portfolio – which includes retail property across Sydney, Melbourne and Wollongong – to $2.5 billion, and is its first venture with Scentre Group.
Westfield Whitford City is an 88,880 sqm complex anchored by retailers including Coles, Woolworths, ALDI, and Kmart, with Big W as a major department store.
A $80m redevelopment, completed in 2017, saw the site overhauled with a large dining and entertainment hub added and further upgrades completed in 2023.
The centre sits on a prime 235,000 sqm site which has significant value-add and mixed-use development opportunities in future.
There is also development approval in place for about 90 apartments and an office block. An adjoining large format retail precinct adds further value to the asset.
It has a moving annual turnover of $513.6 million, a 7.5 per cent year-on-year increase.
In another major recent mall deal for Western Australia, Vicinity Centres settled the $420 million purchase of a half-stake in Perth’s Lakeside Joondalup Shopping Centre, acquiring it from the Future Fund.
Although Scentre passed up on the opportunity to take complete control of Westfield Whitford City, it has partnered with investment bank Barrenjoey and been active over the last few months by buying up half stakes in Adelaide’s Westfield West Lakes for $174.8 million and in Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, also in Adelaide, for $308 million.
