Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC has emerged as the ultimate owner of the High Tech Campus (HTC) in Eindhoven in a deal which closed earlier this week.
PropertyEU understands that GIC is the majority investor in the Oaktree-managed fund which has bought the asset in what is expected to be the country's largest property deal of the year.
With a price estimated at €1.1 bn, the asset was sold by Dutch billionaire-entrepreneur Marcel Boekhoorn who signed a binding agreement over the summer. Oaktree Capital Management was then managed as the buyer, although the US asset management giant is now believed to be buying the asset on behalf of GIC.
Oaktree will also manage the asset on behalf of GIC going forward.
The campus, comprising more than 40 buildings where 235 businesses are based, employing 12,000 people, had been on the market for some time.
Boekhoorn acquired the HTC in 2012 for around €425 mln. In 2019, it was refinanced by a group of banks lead-managed by ABN Amro, putting its value at more than €900 mln.
Initial yields for high tech centres have fallen in the past few years; last year, Brainport BIC in Eindhoven was sold to Capreon for a price reflecting a gross initial yield of 6%.
The HTC in Eindhoven has undergone further development in the past three years. Whereas some 90,000 m² of space was still undeveloped in 2019, this has now dropped to around 80,000 m².
Oaktree Capital Management declined to comment.
