Brookfield Property Partners LP disclosed an increase in its quarterly distribution and detailed the transactions it made as part of its capital recycling initiatives.
The commercial real estate company's board approved a new quarterly distribution of 31.5 cents per unit, higher than its previous quarterly payout of 29.5 cents per unit. The dividend will be paid March 29 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 28.
During the fourth quarter of 2017, the trust sold a 49% stake in its One Liberty Plaza office tower in lower Manhattan, N.Y., for $742 million, with net proceeds to the company of $328 million. The New York Post, citing industry sources, reported in December 2017 that Blackstone Group LP was under contract to buy the stake.
Brookfield sold two Washington, D.C., office properties for $186 million, $96 million at its share, and six U.S. multifamily properties for $277 million, $77 million at its share. Brookfield also saw proceeds of $38 million from the $212 million sale of 13 industrial properties and 3,500 acres of land.
The company used the proceeds for its active development pipeline and new acquisitions. Brookfield spent $290 million in the roughly $900 million purchase of a 4.2 million-square-foot office portfolio in the Powai district of Mumbai, India, and $32 million to acquire two office properties totaling 400,000 square feet in San Jose, Calif.
The company also purchased a stake in a student housing asset in Aberdeen, U.K., for £13 million; an 88% share in a Niido multifamily property in Orlando for $58 million; a share in a portfolio of 105 extended-stay hotels in the U.S. for $197 million; and a stake in the Renaissance Dupont Circle hotel in Washington, D.C., for $28 million.
Brookfield said it plans to invest up to $200 million in other properties owned by Niido, an Airbnb-friendly apartment concept.
