GDI Property Group assembles $143m Ikea deal in Perth

GDI Property Group has struck a conditional deal to buy the Ikea store in Perth in a $143.5 million deal.

The Ikea store in the Perth suburb of Innaloo has two floors of retail space, including showrooms and a restaurant.

The cashed-up GDI Property Group has struck a conditional deal to buy the Ikea store in Perth for a new unlisted fund in a $143.5 million deal.

Swedish furniture giant Ikea was in February poised to pay $132m for the freehold of the property in the northwestern Perth suburb of Innaloo.

But its plans to cement its control over that part of its Australian empire fell by the wayside as investors in the unlisted Lex Property Fund, which backed the development of the project that was completed in 2008, narrowly voted the sale down.

Perth businessman Alan Tribe, who has a fortune estimated at more than $400m, that month struck a deal to sell his private Cebas, which held the franchise for Swedish ­furniture and homeware retailer in Adelaide and Perth, to ­parent company Ikea Group.

Ikea was already franchisee for Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria and Tasmania, and was seeking to merge all Ikea operations in Australia under single ownership.

Mr Tribe’s private Cebas held the first right of refusal to buy the property which Ikea now holds.

But it seems unlikely to pay the extra amount to buy the 27,077sq m Ikea store, which has two floors of retail space, including showrooms, office space and facilities for workers, childminding facilities, a restaurant and a warehouse.

There is another 2933sq m of space in four retail units, leased to multiple tenants, and parking for 1000 cars.

GDI is buying the property at 6 Sunray Drive on a passing yield of 7.8 per cent and it has a weighted average lease expiry of over five years.

The Ikea store lease expires in February 2023 and the company has three five-year options.

The new GDI-managed trust, the GDI No. 43 Property Trust, is forecast to spin off a yield of 8 per cent, with the group to launch a $96m public raising shortly.