Perron Group in talks to sell half of The Glen shopping centre to MA Financial
MA Financial is in talks with Perron Group over a stake in The Glen shopping centre in Melbourne.
Perron Group, set up by late Australian businessman and philanthropist Stan Perron, is capitalising on the resurgence of interest in Melbourne retail assets by entering talks to sell its half interest in The Glen to MA Financial Group.
A sale to the rising funds manager would take disposals by the Perron Group in Victoria to about $530m, after it earlier sold a stake in Westfield Airport West in Melbourne’s western suburbs to JY Group for about $190m.
The latest move would see the private group, now controlled by Mr Perron’s family, sell a 50 per cent stakes in The Glen in Glen Waverley to an undisclosed MA Financial-run vehicle for around $340m.
The move would lock in the resurgence of major mall assets across Australia with trades being stuck at above the book values at which listed landlords hold their interests, even when management remains with these larger groups.
MA Financial has already snapped up a series of major malls in Queensland and NSW earlier in the cycle, and the transaction would show its operation is maturing.
The group’s big trades include buying the massive Logan Hyperdome complex south of Brisbane for $678m, and Sydney shopping centre Top Ryde City, with the backing of Singaporean investment giant Keppel REIT, for $525m.
CBRE’s Simon Rooney is brokering the off-market transaction but he and the parties declined to comment.
The Glen is a two-level major regional shopping centre in Glen Waverley, about 26km southeast of Melbourne CBD. Anchored by David Jones, Target, Aldi, Coles and Woolworths, with a fresh food market hall, an outdoor dining precinct and more than 205 specialty stores, it is one of the city’s top malls.
The entire complex was valued at $618m on a capitalisation rate of 6.5 per cent in 2025 according to Vicinity’s accounts. Sitting in a prime position in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, The Glen underwent a major development that transformed it into a mixed-use destination in 2020. A $430m retail and fresh food development was undertaken alongside a $450m residential precinct by Golden Age Group.
Mr Perron, who died in 2018 at the age of 96, built the Perron Group to have net assets of more than $4bn. The group is now run for philanthropic funding purposes, with a permanent endowment model tied to the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation.
Perron Group in 2024 sold stakes in two of its largest Perth shopping centres – Cockburn Gateway and Belmont Forum – to the listed GPT in one of its largest property exits.
There has been a series of big-ticket deals showing that institutional buyers are back in the market for top centres – though prices have dropped in the wake of the Covid crisis and hikes in interest rates.
Meanwhile in Sydney, investors have less stock to chase and are focusing on mid-size assets.
The offer of Bay Central in Woolooware by Capital Corporation and Novm is expected to garner interest at more than $170m. Completed in 2024, it comprises about 18,100sq m of space over two levels, anchored by full-line Woolworths and Aldi supermarkets alongside Dan Murphy’s, with over 37 specialty tenancies.
JLL’s Nick Willis and Sam Hatcher, and CBRE’s Mr Rooney and James Douglas are handling the sale.
It comes hot on the heels of Mercer swooping on a half-interest in East Village and Frasers Property Australia selling Eastern Creek Quarter in western Sydney to Vicinity Centres for $400m.
