Confirming its plan to offload its property portfolio, Australia Post has pocketed a reported $25m from real estate development group Mirvac for the sale of its industrial site in Altona, Melbourne.
In May it was revealed the embattled mail courier was considering a plan to sell-off its building portfolio after its weakening letter and parcel delivery service lead to a $222m loss for the company last year.
A former distribution centre, the property at 26-38 Harcourt Road covers 6.4 hectares of land and also includes an onsite factory. Neighbouring vacant land stretching 2.3 hectares was also offered as part of the deal.
Before formalising the sale this month, the property was generating annual rent of $2.6m for Aus Post. It is understood Mirvac will use the property as a leased investment.
Aus Post’s historic general post office buildings will not be spared from the mass sell-off plan, a few weeks ago a historic former post office on Maling Road, Canterbury was sold for a reported $7.3m.
It is believed Aus Post CEO Ahmed Fahour is also planning to offload another six of the company’s building assets, including Sydney’s renowned general post office building in Martin Place.
Recently, Aus Post also dumped plans to introduce a parcel holding fee after copping widespread consumer backlash.
Aus Post was planning to hit customers with a $9 fee if a parcel was delivered but not collected within five days, starting on August 1.
The mail courier swiftly backtracked on the changes by posting to its website, “After listening to customer feedback, Australia Post will maintain its existing arrangements for holding parcels.
“We had previously sought customer feedback about holding parcels for up to 30 days in return for a small fee. From the outset, we advised that if customers did not want us to make the changes we wouldn't proceed.”
The company has advised it will revert back to its process of holding parcels free of charge for 10 days before returning it to sender.
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