French asset manager Amundi has appointed Lazard to manage the sale of the bulk of the assets owned by its Amundi RE Europa and Amundi RE Italia funds, PropertyEU can reveal.
The vehicles, which are due to liquidate their entire portfolios by the end of next year, are expected to complete the disposals at well below acquisition cost largely as a result of the high vacancy rate - 30% across the two funds - as well as the assets’ secondary locations.
Amundi RE Europa owns a total of 10 office assets mostly located in Italy (7), with one small office asset in Berlin and two office properties worth €46 mln in Paris. The largest property in the portfolio is a €44 mln office building in Rome’s Via Alessandro Severo, 246. The entire package was last valued at €172 mln, or €49 mln less than what Amundi paid for the properties over the years.
Amundi will seek a block sale of the Italian assets while the foreign properties are expected to be sold on an asset by asset basis. Earlier this year the fund also separately launched the disposal of the head office of mobile network operator H3G Wind in Rome through broker C&W. The 14,200 m2 fully-let complex was bought in 2011 for just over €52 mln.
Amundi’s Italian fund - Amundi RE Italia - is the owner of a total of 12 assets located throughout Italy and in particular in the cities of Milan (3), the Milan surroundings (4 assets in Basiano, Cesiano Boscone, Segrate and Cinisello Balsamo), in Galliera Veneta, Trieste, Rome, Bari and Sassari.
The portfolio, which largely consists of office properties, was last valued at €143 mln, or around 29% less than the price paid by the fund to acquire the properties over the years. The largest property in the portfolio is a €39 mln office building in Rome’s Viale Alessandro Marchetti, 105.
Amundi will seek a block sale of the eight office properties part of the portfolio while the other assets including a logistics facility, a retail unit, a tourist village and a plot of land, are expected to be sold on an asset by asset basis.
This article first appeared in Europroperty, the weekly edition of PropertyEU
