Newton REIT HRPT Properties Trust has entered an agreement to acquire MacarthurCook Industrial Property Fund, an Australian property trust.

HRP will acquire all of the MIF equity units outstanding at A$0.40/unit and MIF will become a wholly owned subsidiary of HRP. The total number of MIF units outstanding is approximately 98.5 million (at A$0.40/unit, it equals approximately A$39.4 million).

In addition to purchasing the MIF equity units, HRP will assume or prepay approximately A$46.4 million of MIF debt, bringing the total consideration payable by HRP to approximately $79.2 million, excluding transaction costs.

MIF currently owns 10 industrial properties with approximately 1.4 million square feet. These properties are approximately 90 percent leased to 16 tenants for a weighted (by rent) average lease term of approximately five years. The MIF properties are located in five Australian states: New South Wales (3 properties), Victoria (2 properties), Western Australia (2 properties), Tasmania (2 properties) and Queensland (1 property).

MIF is currently managed by MacarthurCook Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of AIMS Financial Group, or AIMS. AIMS is headquartered in Sydney and has offices located throughout Australia and China as well as in Hong Kong and Singapore. AIMS will continue to manage these properties after HRP acquires MIF. AIMS, HRP and HRP’s manager, Reit Management & Research LLC, expect to work together to expand HRP’s investments in Australia. Although the investment in MIF is modest compared to HRP’s total property investments of over US$6.6 billion, HRP believes that this investment may create a platform for further purchases of Australian properties. HRP also believes that Australian properties and the Australian economy generally are well positioned by geography and natural resources to benefit from the economic growth in the Asia Pacific region in the future.

HRP has retained Gilbert + Tobin as its Australian legal advisers with regards to this transaction.