National fund manager Centennial has appointed Charter Hall’s Richard Mason who previously oversaw its flagship $14 billion Prime Industrial Fund, to head Centennial’s national industrial and logistics transactions team.

Based in Centennial’s Sydney office, Richard will report to Centennial’s executive director Paul Ford who said Centennial was undergoing a targeted growth phase nationally in preparation for more opportunistic property deals expected to eventuate as the market undergoes further corrections before stabilising.

Centennial CEO Adrian Taylor said the group has recently leased new, larger office premises in Brisbane and Melbourne in preparation for this growth and has expanded into other asset classes such as retail: its Sydney office has also bolstered its wealth and asset management teams to enable a greater focus on other property classes that could include distressed office assets.   

Mr Mason's strong background in valuation, transactions and investment management spanning over 30 years in the Australian I&L market, has seen him work across a wide range of property sectors and disciplines including his most recent role heading Charter Hall's flagship Prime Industrial Fund where he steered the fund's growth into an over $14 billion powerhouse of I&L assets, and a development pipeline of over $3 billion.

Centennial was undergoing a targeted growth phase across three states in preparation for more opportunistic property deals expected to eventuate as the market undergoes further corrections before stabilising.

Centennial currently has more than $2.1 billion worth of property assets across Australia with a further ~$900m of projects in the pipeline. 

Mr Mason’s move to Centennial follows a 17-plus-year career at Charter Hall specialising in the I&L sector where he was responsible for and directly involved in over $10 billion of new acquisitions, more than $2 billion of divestments and over $5 billion of completed developments together with equity raisings in excess of $7 billion.

Centennial appoints Richard Mason as Head of Industrial & Logistics transactions