GPT swoops on Perron Group Perth shopping centres

The wishes of late billionaire Stan Perron are being brought to fruition as millions are poured into his charitable foundation through the sale of real estate assets.

One of the shopping centres bought into by GPT.

The private Perron Group has sold stakes in two of its largest Perth shopping centres – Cockburn Gateway and Belmont Forum – to the listed GPT in one of the largest property exits by the company since founder Stan Perron died six years ago.

The pair on Friday unveiled a new retail partnership under which GPT will acquire from Perron a 50 per cent interest in two premium Perth retail assets, Cockburn Gateway and Belmont Forum, for about $482m.

The transaction is both one of the largest shake ups of the Perron empire and a signal that large-scale shopping centres are back in vogue for large companies.

There has been a series of big ticket deals showing that institutional buyers are back in the market for top centres – though prices have dropped in the wake of the coronavirus crisis and interest rate hikes. The off-market deal was brokered by Lachlan MacGillivray of Colliers.

He said the transaction underscored “the increasing demand for capital partnering opportunities, particularly coupled with demand for high-quality retail assets in prime locations that have strong engagement with the local ­community”.

“This is the largest retail portfolio capital partnering deal struck since the Pacific portfolio transacted in 2018. We expect further strategic capital partnering activities to accelerate over 2025 and beyond,” he said, referring to QIC’s $1bn deal with the Alter family.

Western Australia-based Perron has a highly profitable real estate unit and has pushed into areas such as infrastructure investing as it diversifies its holdings to ensure that its portfolio earns enough money to back its philanthropic endeavours.

The billionaire founder, Stan Perron, died at the age of 96 in 2018. His family manages one of the largest charitable foundations in the country, overseen by Elizabeth Perron.

“This transaction also aligns with the evolution of Perron Group’s broader strategic objectives as a permanent endowment to support the work of the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation,” Perron CEO Adam Irving said.

The foundation earlier committed $135.5m over 10 years to enable the establishment of WA’s first-ever Kids Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

“We identified GPT as an ideal partner for both Cockburn Gateway and Belmont Forum because of its industry-leading experience in both retail and mixed-use developments, as this will be crucial to maximising the value of the assets over time,” Mr Irving said.

Mr Perron is recognised for building an operation spanning real estate, infrastructure, car dealerships and iron ore royalties and worth more than $4bn.

The group he founded remains one of the country’s most substantial private enterprises. It returned a net operating result before tax and unrealised gains and losses of $425m for fiscal 2024, an 11 per cent lift on fiscal 2023, reflecting a good performance across the majority of the portfolio, which had favourable financial conditions for much of the year.

It was a record year of vehicle and parts sales for Toyota WA, with 29,000 new vehicles delivered and work kicked off on the building of a $115m Toyota WA parts distribution centre. Work was also finished on the facade upgrade on Perth’s Central Park Office Tower, which the group co-owns with Frasers.

The two shopping centres have 119,000sq m of gross lettable area and a combined moving annual turnover of more than $1bn.

Cockburn Gateway could be overhauled by expanding the retail spaces and eventually adding some forms of housing, a strategy also adopted by Westfield owner Scentre and Vicinity Centres.

Development approval has been secured for a 20-year transformation project at Cockburn Gateway, with the first stage having potential for 20,000sq m of incremental retail in the near term.

GPT CEO Russell Proutt is driving a push by the listed company into funds management and is bullish about the direction of the shopping centre performance.

“This is an exciting partnership which further expands our $14 billion portfolio of retail assets with two centres that are top performing in their respective trade areas and extremely well positioned, in catchments with strong population growth and favourable demographics,” Mr Proutt said.

“Our investment is consistent with GPT’s strategy to build and diversify the group’s management platform, in alignment with like-minded investment partners. This acquisition will leverage the group’s outstanding retail operational capability to drive asset performance and pursue compelling development opportunities,” he said.