OIPP

The Armstrong Jones Office Fund began as an unlisted property trust in September 1984, and was first listed and managed by Armstrong Jones Management Limited (part of Armstrong Jones) in April 1992. Armstrong Jones and its related entities were later purchased by Mercantile Mutual in 1996.
 

The Prime Credit Property Trust was listed on the ASX in May of 1994 and the management rights were purchased by Heine Management Ltd from Babcock & Brown Management Limited in 1995.
 

Mercantile Mutual, the parent company of Armstrong Jones, acquired Heine Management Limited in 1999 and began integration of the two management businesses.

After the acquisition by Mercantile Mutual of Heine Management Limited, Prime Credit Property Trust was evaluated as containing a complementary group of properties and utilising similar investment strategies to the Armstrong Jones Office Fund. This alignment provided an ideal opportunity to merge Armstrong Jones Office Fund and Prime Credit Property Trust in December of 1999. This merger resulted in both AJO and PCP being delisted from the ASX with a new stapled security listed as the Armstrong Jones Office Group from January of 2000, with total merged assets of $1.2bn.

One year later, in February of 2001, Mercantile Mutual and its subsidiaries underwent a change of name to ING. In alignment with this name change the Armstrong Jones Office Group was renamed the ING Office Fund (ASX:IOF).
 

Ten years later, in 2011, ING made the decision to sell the management rights of IOF to Investa Property Group resulting in a change of the Responsible Entity which was approved by unitholders. In line with the transfer ING Office Fund was renamed the Investa Office Fund, and the new Responsible Entity Board adopted a market leading initiative to base the Responsible Entity fee on IOF’s market capitalisation, as opposed to gross assets. The strategy of IOF was refined and the Fund was to refocus on 100% Australian assets after an orderly sale of offshore interests of assets in the US and Europe. IOF continues to establish itself as Australia’s best performing CBD office fund with a diverse portfolio of high performing investment grade office assets to deliver enhanced Unitholder returns.