Australia's leading independent law firm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, has advised Centuria Heathley Limited on its joint venture with AXA Investment Managers and the Grosvenor Group aimed at creating a A$500 million healthcare real estate portfolio.

Institutional investor AXA Investment Managers, and international property investor the Grosvenor Group, will invest alongside Centuria Heathley Limited in a property portfolio of specialist centres and day hospitals.

In 2018, Corrs advised Heathley Limited (Heathley) on the establishment of a joint venture with the Grosvenor Group. The joint venture involved the establishment of a property fund which invests in healthcare properties throughout Australia and is managed by a Heathley subsidiary, Centuria Heathley Asset Management Limited.

This year, Heathley was approached by French-headquartered global manager AXA Investment Managers to partner to similarly leverage Heathley's specialist funds management expertise in the growing medical property sector.

Separately, Centuria Capital Group acquired a 63.06% economic interest in Heathley Limited and established the combined Centuria Heathley group, resulting in an unlisted funds platform to circa A$1 billion assets under management.

Following extensive four party negotiations among Heathley, Grosvenor, AXA and Centuria, the existing joint venture arrangement was modified to enable AXA's participation in the specialist healthcare real estate investment strategy managed by Centuria Heathley.

The Corrs team was led by Fadi C. Khoury and involved strategic input from banking, corporate and real estate practices across Corrs, including partners Rommel Harding-Farrenberg (Banking) and Andrew Lumsden (Corporate).

Lead partner Fadi C. Khoury said: "The transaction is an endorsement of the management team at Centuria Heathley, who we have supported in their business transformation over many years. The significant investment reflects the strength of the strategic relationships developed by the firm with a range of specialist healthcare operators, and the importance of healthcare property as an institutional asset class."