CANBERRA: Frasers Property Australia (FPA), an Australian unit of Frasers Centrepoint (FCL), is launching a new retail business unit, leveraging on FPA’s local residential development base and the retail expertise of FCL.
FPA has established itself in the ANZAC market with a portfolio of delivering projects such as neighbourhood retail centres for local communities, often prior to the launch of the new unit. Frasers Property Australia recently adopted FCL’s international Frasers Property brand in August 2015, and rebranded from Australand.
The creation of a separate retail business unit is a new initiative under the leadership of the Australian units new CEO, Rod Fehring, who was installed in the position in August 2015. Peri Macdonald will head the retail business unit, reporting directly to Fehring.
In an official release, Fehring explained: “We see a significant opportunity to build on our existing expertise to undertake more mixed- use development in which retail and residential are complementary components. Our retail business will seek to capitalise on the synergies between residential and retail that we naturally achieve in the mixed-use sector.”
Fehring added, “The Edmondson Park Town Centre in western Sydney, for which we recently won the development rights, will showcase our expertise and enlarge our retail portfolio,” he added.
Fehring highlighted FPA projects at Central Park and The Ponds as “…excellent examples of retail enhancing and enabling successful communities, and this is clearly one of Frasers Property’s strengths in Australia.”
With the FPA planning to grow its retail portfolio from $300 million to $1 billion over the next five years, this expansion into the retail business space is aligned with FCL’s growth strategies targeted to achieve balanced growth across its property-related revenue channels.
It is an objective on the part of the firm to increase the proportion of income from recurring sources, while leveraging REIT platforms for capital recycling. Assets developed in Australia – including retail assets – may be sold into one of the group’s REITs, releasing capital for re-deployment into new developments or investment opportunities.
In the nine years since FCL listed its first REIT in 2006, FCL has grown its total assets almost four-fold from S$6.1 billion as at 30 September 2006 to S$23.1 billion1 as at 30 June 2015.
