Charter Hall launches innovative new retail offering with wholesale rewards

Charter Hall Group, one of Australia's leading property fund managers has launched a new unlisted investment opportunity called the Charter Hall Umbrella Fund (CHUF or the Fund) ARSN 127 457 738.

CHUF provides investors with an opportunity to gain access to strong returns from a suite of Charter Hall property funds initially invested across a diversified portfolio of over 40 commercial properties within the office, industrial and retail markets. CHUF will allow retail investors to gain access to the performance of Charter Hall's wholesale unlisted property funds. 

Key features of CHUF include:

• An opportunity for investors to invest across Charter Hall's suite of unlisted property funds with a 70 percent target to unlisted property, with the balance of a 30 percent allocation managed by UBS Global Asset Management (Australia) in a high yield LPT mandate.
• Quarterly distributions are forecast to be tax deferred to 100 percent for FY08 and FY09.
• A limited liquidity facility provided by Charter Hall giving investors the opportunity to apply to sell units to Charter Hall subject to certain conditions.

The launch of the Charter Hall Umbrella Fund comes on the back of the Group's strong FY07 annual results, which has seen a solid expansion of its funds management business and achieved 108 percent growth in assets under management from $1.3 billion to $2.8 billion.

David Harrison, Charter Hall's Joint Managing Director said: "CHUF offers retail investors a geographically and sectorally diversified property portfolio across all of Charter Hall's unlisted property funds. The underlying funds into which CHUF will invest have a weighted average lease expiry in excess of 10 years, exposure to over 40 quality assets across Australia and New Zealand in office, industrial and retail markets. Importantly, Charter Hall takes a significant co-investment stake in all of its funds, providing a transparent alignment of interest with investors".

nabCapital is the sole arranger and underwriter for the offer and is also providing funding for instalment options available under the offer, which allows investors to defer payment of 40 percent of their investment capital for 3 years.

Bill Halmarick, Director in nabCapital Structured Property Finance said: "CHUF provides retail investors with an opportunity to access wholesale property fund returns, previously only available to wholesale and institutional investors and to attain exposure to the Charter Hall management team, which has established a reputation for innovation, risk management and solid investor returns in property funds management. CHUF fulfils nabCapital's mandate to source and provide differentiated investment opportunities for retail investors, consistent with previous property products arranged by nabCapital".

The initial equity raising for CHUF will be $100 million and nabCapital has underwritten 100 percent of the offer. In addition, Charter Hall will take up to $50 million as a cornerstone investor.

David Harrison further stated "CHUF will provide Charter Hall with increased penetration in the unlisted retail market further diversifying its sources of equity. We expect CHUF to further accelerate the Group's existing and future fund initiatives".