CBD office towers may be out of favour as working from home looks set to be a thing long after COVID-19 has passed into the medical text books, but one legendary investor still sees value in the beaten down sector.

CBD office towers may be out of favour as working from home looks set to be a thing long after COVID-19 has passed into the medical text books, but one legendary investor still sees value in the beaten down sector.
Hume Partners, the Scanlon family-backed investment house headed by corporate veteran Ross Burney, has been steadily inching closer to a crucial 19.9 per cent stake in one-time takeover target Australian Unity Office Fund.
Peter Scanlon-backed Hume Partners is on the move again at Australian Unity Office Fund,  Jesse Marlow
The $350 million property trust, which owns a $670 million portfolio of nine office towers, has had plenty of interest in the past year. Ironically it was the solid presence of Hume on its register which posed a serious obstacle in the past to any barbarians at the gate.
Now the spotlight is on Hume’s own intentions, with the Melbourne-based investment house, at around 16 per cent, expected to lodge an updated substantial holder notice within days. Street Talk understands Hume Partners has been creeping using a variety of brokers to hoover up the shares.
Hume is playing down any broader agenda but its remorseless creep up the register has got tongues wagging.
A joint takeover offer from Charter Hall and Abacus last year, which had been endorsed by the Australian Unity-run fund itself, unravelled last year after Hume began increasing its stake, with the bid eventually scuttled at a shareholder vote. In January, US investment giant Starwood Capital returned for a second tilt at Australian Unity-run fund, only to retreat two months later.
A former colleague of famed corporate raiders Gary Weiss and Sir Ron Brierley at GPG, Ross Burney would be all too aware of the takeover challenges at the ASX-listed fund. Already sitting heavy on the register is Australian Unity itself with a near 14.9 per cent stake and Singapore’s Keppel Capital, with a similar-sized holding. The powerful pair of institutional investors struck a joint venture agreement in January this year, which brought Keppel onto the register.