During the week Caltex announced it is looking at options for its property assets, which may include a potential ASX listing or trade sale. At it’s full year results, Caltex Australia (ASX: CTX) said that it is currently undertaking a review of its property portfolio, which includes 476 owned property sites. It is speculated that a sale of its property assets would provide Caltex with capital to help facilitate the buy-back of its franchises, which it is looking to complete by 2020.
The possibility of an ASX listed REIT is likely to be considered by Caltex and would come off the back of recent IPOs for Viva Energy REIT (ASX: VVR) in August 2016 and Convenience Retail REIT (ASX: CRR) in July 2017. VVR owns 438 properties (mainly Shell/Coles sites) while CRR owns 68 properties (mainly Puma Energy, Woolworths and 7-Elevens), with both A-REITs operating on long WALEs of over 13 years, providing strong certainty of income for investors.
Caltex expects to announce the details of its review by June 2018 and whether it will undertake a trade sale, ASX listing or otherwise of its properties.