Charter Hall Buys $93m Brisbane Tower from Kevin Seymour, Ariande

ASX-listed Ariadne Australia has capitalised on Brisbane's booming office market with the sale of 40 Tank Street to a pair of Charter Hall-run funds for $93 million.

The sale is $37 million more than Ariadne and its deputy chairman Kevin Seymour paid US private equity giant Blackstone for the building little over a year ago.

The purchase was made by the listed Charter Hall Long WALE REIT and the unlisted Charter Hall Direct PFA Fund in a deal struck on an initial yield of 5.84 per cent.

The 10-storey office building comprises a net lettable area of 6218sq m and 327 car parking bays across five levels.

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The building, which was 80 per cent occupied when purchased by Ariadne last year, has benefited from the company's repositioning of the occupancy and renegotiated a new partnership with Care Park.

The state government's police services also took out the remaining space in the tower’s office at a weighted average lease expiry of 6.3 years.

Ariadne expects that net profit before tax would be $17.6m-$19.6m, down on the previous year’s $76.9m profit that was bolstered by a $67.1m gain on selling Secure Parking.

Ariadne will collect $14.8 million in net proceeds from its share, to be included in its 2018 fiscal year result.

JLL's Geoff McIntyre, Seb Turnbull and Luke Billiau brokered the deal which is scheduled to settle at the end of August.

Brisbane’s office market is currently enjoying the positive effects of an economic turnaround coupled with a flurry of investment activity.

Almost $2 billion worth transactions taking place in the city's office markets last financial year.

Last week, Mirvac agreed to sell 50 per cent of its 80 Ann Street Brisbane CBD tower to British fund manager M&G Property’s Asian property fund for $418 million on a 5 per cent cap rate.