Aware Super takes $2bn stake in Goodman Group's US logistics portfolio
The super fund is buying into US logistics at a time big players have been on the sidelines as Trump’s tariffs roil markets.
Superannuation heavyweight Aware Super has struck a deal to take a 49 per cent stake in a $2bn partnership in the United States managed by listed industrial property company Goodman Group.
The fund will take the stake in a partnership that owns and operates three properties in Los Angeles’ key logistics corridors and infill markets, building up its US holdings after striking a series of deals in Europe.
The move defies the uncertainty hanging over a sector dealing with the fallout from the Trump administration’s tariff hikes, which have seen some players sit out of the market.
The deal will take Aware deeper into the US logistics market, adding to its $12bn property portfolio, which spans living, industrial, office upgrades, life sciences and cold storage.
The three seed assets in the platform comprise 2.775 million square feet of building area on 187.3 acres of land in California. The properties are a mix of new and older properties with value-add redevelopment potential. They are already occupied by tenants including Amazon, Maersk, and Relativity Space.
The industrial sector in the US has been one of the best performing and most dynamic logistics sectors, supported by the rise of onshoring and growth of e-commerce, forecast to represent 21 per cent of all American retail sales by 2027.
Goodman will keep a 51 per cent stake in the partnership and will provide asset and property management services to the platform.
Aware is targeting long-term structural trends in technology and demographics that are reshaping global logistics and industrial demand. Aware head of property Alek Misev noted the impact of US tariffs on the market.
“Despite recent market uncertainty, we remain confident in the strong long-term fundamentals of the US industrial sector, with Los Angeles benefiting from limited supply and robust consumption patterns,” he said. “The investment also reflects our counter-cyclical approach of identifying opportunities when others are cautious.”
Some larger players have pulled back from the logistics market at a time when Aware is buying. “We’re targeting under-supplied infill locations where it is difficult to build new supply, and creating compelling fundamentals for our members’ $12bn property portfolio,” Mr Misev said.
He said Goodman Group’s partnership demonstrated the fund’s strategy of working with experienced operators who understood their markets. “The capability Goodman has developed is market leading, and its insights into global supply chains and industrial markets is unmatched,” Mr Misev said.
Goodman chief executive Greg Goodman said the overall US business represented over 37 per cent of its offshore earnings and was an increasingly important part of our global investment strategy.
“Alongside our longstanding investment partner, Aware Super, we see significant growth opportunities in our key US infill markets to support the development of essential infrastructure in a rapidly transforming digital economy,” he said.
The Goodman property empire is showing the strength of demand for industrial real estate in the United States and in January it struck a separate mega-deal with the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.
The investment also establishes a scalable platform for Aware Super’s broader US property strategy, which focuses on industrial and build-to-rent sectors where supply-demand imbalances are throwing up attractive investment opportunities.
Mr Misev said the group had an established European platform now operational in London and the fund had the capacity to scale its US presence and explore new markets, including developed Asia.
The industrial sector is a core component of Aware’s strategy, representing 30 per cent of the portfolio currently in Australia, alongside the fund’s 45 per cent living sector focus, with both sectors a stable bedrock for more opportunistic plays in office and retail.
The deal also marks the latest platform investment Aware has made with Goodman Group globally, having first co-invested in partnerships in Australia and Brazil since 2012. Other local plays include Aware buying the Austrak Business Park in Melbourne for $600m last year, which it is now developing out.
Goodman shares dropped 14c to $32.91 in early morning trade.
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