FRANCE AND THE NETHERLANDS
Europa Capital, the pan-European real estate investment manager has sold fully-let offices in the Sémaphore building, Greater Paris, for €142.5million.
The 12,000 square meter fully-let offices building in Levallois-Perret has been sold on behalf of its value add fund, Europa Fund V (the “Fund”), to one of the funds of Primonial REIM.
Sale of fully-let offices follows lease agreement
The sale of the fully-let offices follows shortly after the agreement of a nine-year firm lease for the entirety of the eight-storey building, whilst it was being refurbished. The lease is with Doctolib, a high-profile French technology company, which is due to move in January 2020.
Europa Capital acquired the property with vacant possession in 2017. It obtained revisions to an existing construction permit and also undertook a comprehensive refurbishment. This included the creation of a new staff restaurant and cafeteria. It also included new heating and cooling system and re-landscaping of the roof terraces and internal courtyard.
As a result, the building has been awarded HQE Renovation ‘Excellent’ and is targeting a BREEAM ‘Good’ rating.
Sémaphore is in a sought-after commercial and also a residential suburb on an island site on the banks of the River Seine.
Jonathan Mansie, Director, who heads all acquisition activity for Europa Capital in France, says, “In a market characterised by strong institutional demand for well-let, high-quality core office assets, and having let the entirety of Sémaphore before the refurbishment works were completed, an approach was received from Primonial REIM culminating in a sufficiently attractive offer to pre-empt marketing of the investment. Securing this early sale ahead of business plan has helped to deliver strong returns for the Fund’s investors. “
Europa Capital was advised by Le Breton George V and Mayer Brown. The purchaser was advised by Wargny Katz, LPA-CGR and CBRE.
Light industrial portfolio also acquired
Europa Capital has also acquired a light industrial portfolio in the Netherlands. The six buildings were sold by Looijie Properties, on behalf of Europa Capital’s Fund V’s Dutch Light-Industrial Platform (DULIP).
This portfolio, which totals around 29,000 square meters, is 97% let to approximately 48 tenants with an average WALT of 3.5 years.
The acquisition increases the number of assets in DULIP to 26, growing the platform’s AUM to over €50 million. Accordingly, the platform now comprises around 85,000 square meters of lettable space.
The platform targets investments in locations where there is strong occupational demand for light industrial space due to the rise of e-commerce and also businesses looking to locate close to major urban areas.
James Fortescue, Partner at Europa Capital, says, “Since the end of March, we have deployed a significant amount of capital to create an attractive portfolio focussed on both light industrial and “last mile” distribution properties within the Netherlands. This latest acquisition is strongly aligned to DULIP’s investment strategy and presents an opportunity to leverage our asset management expertise to improve the rental income. We remain focused on growing the Platform further across the Netherlands, as well as exploring similar investment opportunities in Germany.”
DULIP was advised by Dentons and BOAG.
Source: https://www.europacapital.com/news/press-releases/2019/10-10-19
€90m finance for hotel purchases and refurbishment
SPAIN
Pan-European operator, developer and investor, The Student Hotel (TSH), has secured €90 million for the development of two new hotels. It will be also used for refinancing for its existing assets in Spain.
The hotels are in Barcelona as well as Madrid. The lending was provided by a syndicate of three banks.
The financing package forms part of a €2billion accelerated investment programme by Amsterdam-headquartered TSH across European markets over the next five years, that is expected to result in the Spanish market growing in value to about a quarter of its operating portfolio, from 10% currently.
Spain is key target market
Lucas Rijckmans, Chief Corporate Services at TSH, says, “Spain is a key target market within The Student Hotel’s European expansion strategy, due to its increasing attractiveness as an international student base and its draw as a major tourist destination. A growing number of academic exchange and summer school programmes is further driving the demand for high-quality short-stay student accommodation, particularly in Madrid and Barcelona, where there is a severe shortage of supply. By mid-2021, we expect our total Spanish investments to exceed €200 million.”
Santander, Sabadell and HSBC provided the €90 million in financing divided between them and this has been allocated across the bulk of TSH’s development projects as well as standing assets in Spain.
According to Christie & Co, in its recently published 2019 report on the hotel market in Spain, “with three projects in Madrid, Barcelona and San Sebastián, TSH (The Student Hotel) will be the hotel operator that will generate the largest number of rooms in the cities it studied”. The report also concluded that TSH would be the fastest growing operator to target the student segment in Spain in the coming years.
The three TSH projects currently underway are:
Madrid La Imprenta – Refurbishment of an existing complex on the Plaza de España to create a 340-room TSH, also with Collab co-working space, has already started. The opening of the hotel is expected early 2021.
Barcelona Provençals – The new-build 300-room hotel will feature TSH’s largest Collab co-working space in Europe at over 3,500 square meters. It is planned to open in mid-2021. Provençals will also be accessible for any guest to stay, not just students.
TSH San Sebastian – This 327-room new-build hotel with co-working space is scheduled to open in 2021. It is not yet included in the recent TSH bank financing package in Spain.
Source: https://www.thestudenthotel.com/news/90-million-bank-financing-for-new-existing-spanish-assets/
Lithuania’s Quadrum office complex bought for €156m
LITHUANIA
Deka Immobilien has secured the purchase of the Quadrum office complex in the central business district of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for around €156 million.
The seller is UAB Schage Real Estate AS, a Lithuanian subsidiary of the Norwegian developer and also real estate company Schage Eiendom AS. The building complex will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended real estate mutual fund Deka-ImmobilienGlobal.
The Quadrum comprises two existing buildings and which is just finishing. East and North were erected in 2016 and also the South building, which is currently under construction and due for completion in November 2019. The total rentable space of the building complex totals around 44,000 square meters. It is almost completely let. The East as well as the North office towers have a “very good” rating under the BREEAM sustainability certification.
It is Deka-ImmobilienGlobal’s first purchase in Lithuania.
DekaBank is the securities house of the savings banks and, together with its subsidiaries, forms the Deka Group. It has total assets of around €298 billion (as at 30.06.2019) and also around 4.7 million managed accounts. That makes it one of the largest investment service providers and real estate asset managers in Germany.
Offices sold for around €71m
GERMANY
One of Germany’s leading listed real estate companies, DIC Asset, has sold two office properties for around €71million.
The sale of Kontor II in Leipzig and also Schiller 27 in Frankfurt takes the total of property sales in 2019 to around €131million.
The sales from the special funds were launched in the Institutional Business segment via its subsidiary GEG German Estate Group.
Johannes von Mutius, Chief Investment Officer of DIC Asset AG, says, “The sales are in line with the investment strategy of our special funds and were carried out within the planned period. Over the past few years, we have significantly increased the value of our properties through active asset management and attractive lettings. These values have now been realised through the sale of the properties.”
From the portfolio of the DIC Office Balance I, the fully occupied property “Kontor II” in Leipzig was sold to KGAL Investment Management. The office complex, which was modernised in 2007, has a lettable area of around 16,800 square meters as well as excellent transport connections. The property is in the Graphisches Viertel neighbourhood near the university hospital of Leipzig.
The fully occupied “Schiller 27” property on Schillerstrasse in Frankfurt am Main was sold out of the portfolio of the DIC Office Balance II fund to UBS Asset Management. The property of around 3,000 square meters has ODDO Seydler Bank AG as well as Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) as its main tenants. The mixed-use property with both office and commercial spaces lies within walking distance of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It is very easy to reach by both public and private transportation.
DIC Asset AG has around 20 years’ experience in the German real estate market. It has six branch offices and 175 assets.
Source: https://www.dic-asset.de/engl/news/pressrelease.php?we_objectID=1237
Investment firm buys Polish logistics facility for €13.5m
POLAND
Oxenwood Real Estate, the UK and European real estate investment management firm, has acquired a newly-developed logistics facility near Warsaw.
It has been acquired from a joint venture between Panattoni Europe and also Bluehouse Capital for €13.5million.
The 8,500 square meter cross-docking facility at Radzymin, 30km from Warsaw centre, was completed in November 2018. It is a build-to-suit courier delivery distribution centre for DHL Parcel Polska. DHL, which is part of Deutsche Post DHL Group, signed a 10-year lease.
The acquisition is the third in continental Europe by Oxenwood in the last 18 months following the purchase of five facilities in Germany and one in Dublin. All the facilities are occupied by divisions of DHL, the leading global brand in the logistics industry.
Oxenwood was advised by CBRE Poland, Kochanski & Partners, KPMG and also Paragon Consulting. Panattoni Europe and Bluehouse Capital were advised by Kucharski & Partners and TPA.
See more European CRE transactions on the Consorto blog.
