Primewest joins Centuria Capital Group

Primewest Group has begun a new chapter in its 26 year history by merging with the ASX-200 listed Centuria Capital Group (ASX:CNI), creating a broad Australasian real estate investment platform with $17.4 billion of assets under management.

In April 2021, Centuria made an off-market takeover offer for 100% of Primewest securities, which was accepted by Primewest securityholders. By 19 July 2021, all Primewest securities had been acquired by Centuria.

Primewest’s $5.6 billion, predominantly Western Australia-based real estate portfolio complements Centuria’s largely east coast Australia and New Zealand platform, creating a geographically diversified entity.

Additionally, Primewest’s Large Format Retail (LFR), Daily Needs Retail (DNR) and Agriculture real estate investments complement Centuria’s exposure to healthcare, industrial and decentralised office real estate assets across listed and unlisted funds – further diversifying the merged group by asset class, fund type, tenant profiles and investor profiles. The latter includes Primewest’s three institutional mandates collectively worth $1.8 billion.

John McBain, Centuria Joint CEO, said, “We wholeheartedly welcome the Primewest team to the Centuria fold. My fellow Joint CEO, Jason Huljich, and I have known Primewest for a number of years and, together, we saw great synergies between our businesses.

“Our companies have evolved in parallel – both businesses started in the 1990s with small property syndicates and have grown to managing substantial listed and unlisted funds.

“It made sense to join forces to scale our investments across each asset class, deliver better operations through pooled resources, and, ultimately, enhance value to our broad network of investors.

“We value the talent and expertise of our new WA colleagues who are highly experienced in their respective markets. We will use our Group balance sheet, systems and distribution strength to empower our Primewest colleagues to further expand and grow their market dominance.”

Through the Primewest-Centuria integration, a number of senior promotions were announced, including:

• Bruce McCully – Western Australia General Manager and Head of Retail
• Will Johns – General Manager – Transactions
• Andrew Tout – Transactions Manager – Agriculture

David Schwartz, Primewest founder, added, “When John, Jim and I established the business in the 1990s, we couldn’t have imagined the success we see today. Joining with Centuria continues and supercharges the foundations we laid.

“Our investor clients will always remain our central, utmost priority. We intend to provide a wider breadth of investment opportunities not only across Primewest’s traditional asset classes but also across the wider Group.

“With a strong group backing, we can take better advantage of on-market and off-market opportunities that are underpinned by high-quality tenants with strong lease covenants.”