MacarthurCook defends stance on holdings

Boutique property fund manager MacarthurCook Investment Management has responded to suggestions by research houseLonsecthat its $70 million industrial property trust has a weakness due to its lack of exposure to NSW.

Managing director Craig Dunstan says MacarthurCook, which was also given a ‘Recommended’ rating by the Melbourne-based research group, is in fact considering adding a NSW property to the trust but he stresses that it won’t invest in a property simply to put a state on the map.

“If we’re of the view that potential properties in NSW are overpriced then we’re not going to purchase them just to allow us to have a presence in the state,” Dunstan says.

Earlier today Lonsec had deemed that while “the portfolio [of the trust] is geographically diversified a weakness is the lack of exposure to the NSW market”.

There are seven properties held in the MacarthurCook Industrial Property Trust at present, comprising three in Western Australia assets and two in both Victoria and Queensland.

Dunstan says the trust will look to purchase a NSW property for around $15-20 million if the group identifies potential investments if acquired that will assist it in meeting its objective to investors.

“Our objective is to provide investors with an income from the trust and to maximise this we will look for investments which are good value for money,” Dunstan says.

With regard to fees, Lonsec also comments that MacarthurCook's ongoing fee structure is relatively high and while it is willing to defer fees in order to achieve forecast distributions for the first three years, a clawback provision may be detrimental to investors' overall returns.