CBA boosts stake in Kiwi

The manager of the $1 billion-plus Kiwi Income Property Trust has spent $46 million doubling its stake in the country's largest listed real estate entity.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia manages the trust but is also a unitholder and has just increased its stake from 6.2 per cent to 11.5 per cent, paying $1.26 for the units which are trading at $1.22.

Kiwi's unit price has soared in the last week from $1.17, a trend the manager's chief executive Angus McNaughton attributed to a combination of factors.

A $13 million profit on Kiwi's sale of its $69 million stake in Capital Properties was expected to be paid out to investors, McNaughton said, although no decision had yet been made. Kiwi is due to pay its quarterly distribution to unitholders on December 16.

But Capital shareholders who had sold into AMP Property Portfolio's takeover were also fuelling Kiwi's unit price, McNaughton said.

"One property vehicle has gone and so our weighting in the New Zealand market has increased," he said.

Kiwi will announce its half-year profit tomorrow.