ING buys Urbus management rights

ING is buying the management rights to the Urbus property group (formerly Waltus) for $25 million.

Thursday, July 1st 2004, 6:54AM

Urbus Management Limited has announced the conditional sale of its management rights for Urbus Properties Limited to ING (NZ) Limited.

Urbus Management is owned by interests associated with Brendon and Shayne Hodge and provides property and corporate management services for the $410 million diversified portfolio of Urbus Properties.

The sale of the management contract to ING follows a strategic review of Urbus Management's business.

"As the manager of Urbus Properties Limited, our primary goal is to ensure the outcome is in the best interests of all stakeholders, and I believe we have achieved this with the involvement of ING," said director Brendon Hodge.

"ING is one of the largest wealth managers in the world and its New Zealand team brings an excellent track record."

The sale will bring to an end the Hodge family's involvement in the management of Urbus Properties.

"It's been a real journey that was started in 1986 by my father, John Hodge. He had a compelling and challenging vision to provide all investors with an opportunity to invest in commercial property," Hodge said.

Denis Thom, Chairman of Urbus Properties Limited also commented: "ING is a highly regarded and experienced property fund manager, and it is exciting that a company with such a strong global presence could now be involved with Urbus Properties Limited."

Thom said he was confident the involvement of ING would be a good outcome for all investors in Urbus Properties.

Northington Partners Limited in New Zealand and Grant Samuel Corporate Finance Pty Limited in Australia acted as joint advisers to Urbus Management throughout the negotiation process.

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