Mirvac Group to Sell its U.S. Assets

Mirvac Group (MGR), a company that is involved in the real estate business is currently talking with two US based companies regarding the sale of Mirvac Industrial Trust. Among these two companies, one is privately owned while the other one is a listed company. These two groups have come forward to hold talks with Mirvac Group as the company called for expressions of interest in the portfolio of 66 warehouse assets located in Chicago previously in the current year. Nick Collishaw, the managing director of Mirvac Group stated that the company is hoping to see one of the two US companies to come up with their finest bid. There was a possibility of putting an offer to the unitholders before Christmas, Mr. Collishaw added.

Mirvac owns 14 percent stake in MIX which was floated in May 2005 at $1 per share and raised $270 million. However, the shares collapsed to around 8c something that put the current value of the trust at $29.4 million. A $224.1 million worth of loss was posted by the trust for the year which ended in June 30 following the write off of $US154.5 million from the value of its properties. Gross assets of the trust were $565.3 million at 30th of June which is 21 percent lower than in comparison with the year earlier. MIX purchased 5 percent interest of its partner CentrePoint Properties' from the joint venture in exchange of $US13.6 million. It is to be mentioned that Mirvac Group recently approached with a takeover bid for Mirvac Real Estate Investment Trust which is another listed satellite fund of the group.

Mirvac has been engaged in offloading non-core properties and sites. According to the Group’s managing director the company have identified 15 projects that are to be sold among which 5 are sold already. These properties include a commercial property at Hawthorn, in Melbourne and retail spots at Nambour and Ormeau in Queensland's Brisbane. Each of those 10 properties which were yet to be sold were on the books with each valuing less than $20 million.