Abacus Property

Abacus was established in 1996 by an academic from the University of British Columbia, Dr Frank Wolf, listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in November 2002.[3]

The Minerva Theatre building, is part of the company's property portfolio in Sydney

It has a single corporate office in Sydney, Australia. The current chair is the South-African born, Myra Salkinder.[4] The CEO Steven Sewell was appointed in 2018 after leaving Vicinity Centres.[5]

The group's investment portfolio is divided into four divisions: office spaces, self-storage facilities, retail shopping centres and industrial properties.[6] It also owns some historically notable buildings, such as the late art-deco Minerva Theatre near Kings Cross in Sydney.[7]

The group's asset portfolio is heavily weighted to office towers, such as 201 Elizabeth Street in Sydney, the Brisbane Club and Westpac House in Adelaide.[8][9][10] Its first major investment success was purchasing the heritage listed CBC building at 343 George Street, Sydney for $55 million and sold it the next year for $78 million.[3] As of 2021, the group is considered to be highly exposed to downturn in office spaces since the COVID-19 pandemic led to fewer office workers working from their office.[11]

While the group primarily invests in commercial property assets, such as office towers[12][13][14] most of its recent growth has been in self-storage units, a sector buoyed by the storage needs of Australia's growing e-commerce industry.[15] In 2020, Abacus acquired Storage King Pty Ltd, buying the remaining $50m of shares.[16] In early 2021 it purchased a further four self storage facilities in Adelaide and Sydney, along with the remaining 60% of the Oasis Centre in Queensland.[17]

In 2019, the group began divesting from the residential property sector.[8]

• Official website