CBRE Global Investors has sold a portfolio of office assets to Lone Star following a review of its €1.6bn Dutch Office Fund.

The 32 Dutch office properties were sold on behalf of the CBRE Dutch Office Fund asset to Lone Star Funds for a reported figure of around €380m. 

CBRE GI said the sale was part of a strategic review of the fund, which resulted in changes to its structure and conditions.

The firm said the review had led to better liquidity for investors and increased opportunities to add value.

CBRE GI is selling non-core assets from the fund.

Last month, Blue Sky Group, representing several pension funds, bought into the fund via the secondary market, taking a “significant stake”. 

Pension funds represented by Blue Sky included Stichting Pensioenfonds KLM-Cabinepersoneel, Stichting Algemeen Pensioenfonds Vliegend Personeel KLM, Stichting Pensioenfonds Blue Sky Group and Stichting TOTAL Pensioenfonds Nederland.

Peter Bretveld, senior fund manager for global real estate at Blue Sky, last month told IP Real Estate the office fund was being split into a “strategic portfolio” and a “non-strategic portfolio”. 

Bretveld said its purchase of the stake was an opportunity to gain further exposure to Dutch offices – at a time when parts of the market were bottoming out.

Prior to the Lone Star sale, the fund held around 59 assets, including office complex World Trade Center Amsterdam.

Lone Star’s 302,000sqm portfolio is spread across 12 cities in the Netherlands and includes the WTC Papendorp building in Utrecht, the Hague Arc in the Hague, the Coolse Gate in Rotterdam and Gelissendomein in Maastricht.

In a note following the sale, analysts at JP Morgan said Lone Star’s purchase and interest from opportunity funds in Dutch offices was a “first step” towards a recovery in capital values.

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