Bus Depot Investment Strategy
The following statement was made to potential investors in the Information Memorandum dated 25 March 2024
The Investment Manager believes that the Property is in a good general industrial location and that the purchase price is no more than the current unimproved value of the land. Napier & Blakeley estimate the replacement cost of the improvements (GLA & hardstand) to be circa $11.5 million.
The Investment Manager believes that land rich investments appreciate at a greater rate than conventional industrial property
as improvements depreciate over time. The Investment offers Unitholders the opportunity to capitalise on potential capital
value growth whilst deriving a long-term albeit moderate inflation indexed income for the first three years, subject to certain risks including but not limited to those noted in Section 6 and in the Due Diligence Materials.
The Investment Manager believes that historically land value has exhibited growth patterns which over a long period bear a
relationship to CPI. However, value growth tends to move in spurts with periods of regression and/or no movement. The
timing of these changes in value is crucial in determining outcomes of fixed date market rent reviews and the intended sale
of the Property in circa 11 years’ time.
The Property is well suited to its current use and the Investment Manager expects it to remain in that use for circa 23 years being
the length of the current lease term and the two renewal options (assuming the lease is renewed). If the tenant elects not to
exercise an option, then the Investment Manager believes the land could readily be sold or redeveloped.
The tenant is an operator of public and leisure transport and appears to be a reasonably material operating subsidiary of the
Kelsian Group. The current lease expires on 30 November 2030. The current rent is believed to be below market based on the valuer’s assessment for mortgagee purposes. The lease provides for a market rent review every 4 years. The next market review is 1 December 2026. The Trustee expects the tenant will exercise its first option to renew the lease for 8 years to 30 November 2038. On exercise of an option, the rent will (subject to a ratchet) again reset to market.
Determining the market rent for the Property is not straightforward. There are limited recent precedents relating to
the relevant quality, size and location of the extensive hardstand at the Property. Most hardstand leases of non-container rated
land are for either unimproved land or land improved by crushed rock and not high strength concrete and asphalt. A further
difficulty relates to determining the area of surplus hardstand at the site. There are three accepted methods of determining the
area of hardstand, none of them is necessarily applicable to a site which has low but not negligible site coverage (circa 10%) and
where the whole of the site has a high cost and quality cover in concrete and asphalt.
Knight Frank has assessed the current market rent for the Property at $1.57 million. Their valuation is for mortgagee purposes and
consequently the Trustee believes they are likely to have adopted a conservative approach.
Pipeclay’s investment strategy is to hold the Property for three market rent reviews (hence 11 years). Following each rent review,
the Trustee will consider the appropriate level of debt for the Trust given the prevailing circumstances at that time and where
possible seek to effect extraordinary returns of capital.
The Trustee is targeting an overall return to Unitholders of greater than 11.5%. The Base Case assumption is that the market rent
review on 1 December 2026 will be based upon the estimate provided by Knight Frank (in respect of the leased premises) and
that the Property will be sold in 11 years’ time. The Investment Manager, however, believes it can achieve a better outcome for
Unitholders in the 2026 market review, and the additional value created could deliver circa 250 bps increase in the overall return
to Unitholders.
Source: Information Memorandum dated 25 March 2024