Augusta buys $58.5 mln retail property for syndication

Augusta Capital, the listed property investor and fund manager, has bought the Southgate Centre retail site in Auckland's Takanini, which it plans to put on the market for syndication.

The Auckland-based firm will spend $58.5 million buying the property from Retail Holdings which is fully occupied, and plans to syndicate the site before the April 30, 2015 settlement date, it said in a statement. The syndicate offer will need $34.3 million of investor equity to be raised in $50,000 units, of which Augusta will underwrite $23 million. The syndicate offer is expected to open in late February or early March.

"The company is excited about both the size and quality of this offer in light of the recent success of the similarly sized Spark City syndication," the company said.

Augusta's funds management unit generated more than half of its first-half revenue of $6.03 million from the Victoria Dock syndication with Spark New Zealand as tenant.

In March, the company bought property investors KCL Property and Investment Property Titles for a combined $15.4 million in cash and scrip, giving it about 165 properties to manage, with some $1.1 billion in funds under management.

The shares last traded at 98 cents, and have climbed 29 percent this year.