Starwood Capital Group is the latest company to consider listing a single real estate asset on the London-based International Property Seccurities Exchange (IPSX).
The global real estate investment firm has appointed advisers to explore the possibility of listing the 425,000sqft Capital Building in Liverpool.
The property, comprised mostly of office space, would be owned by Trinistar Liverpool, which would then become a single-asset real estate investment trust (REIT) upon admission to IPSX.
Trinity Investment Management will retain a minority stake in the building and will continue to be engaged as the manager.
IPSX, which was designed as a listed exchange of single real estate assets and portfolios, held its first initial public offering (IPO) earlier this year. Mailbox REIT, which owns a single asset in Birmingham, raised £29.5m.
As reported by IPE Real Assets, one of the potential appeals of IPSX is its ability to offer an alternative exit route for real estate owners to direct sales.
Federico Bianchi, head of asset management for Europe at Starwood Capital, said: “We have followed the development of IPSX with interest and most recently following the successful listing and subsequent performance of the Mailbox REIT.
“We believe IPSX offers the dual benefits of providing an important new capital markets option for institutional property owners such as ourselves, as well as providing investors with the opportunity to own shares in a single asset company that owns large high quality real estate that are traded daily on a liquid exchange.”
The Capital Building in the centre of Liverpool’s business district also features a car park and retail space and is 82% let with a weighted-average unexpired lease term of 22 years to five tenants. Starwood and Trinity have refurbished the building in recent years and are currently creating a new three-level atrium that will provide additional amenities.
Bianchi added: “Having undertaken a number of asset management initiatives over the past few years, we believe that the proposed listing on IPSX would allow us to conclude our business plan for the Capital Building while allowing new investors to benefit from the long-term, secure income streams from tenants, as well as the potential value creation from the asset management initiatives that have either concluded or are ongoing.”
