Italian asset manager Antirion has confirmed reports in Italy that it has bought the headquarters of British footwear retailer Kurt Geiger for a price of £64 mln (€76 mln).
Located at Britton Street 24/25 in Central London, the office block is earmarked for the core segment of the Antirion Global Fund, which is entirely invested by Enpam, the Italian pension fund for doctors.
The acquisition from Great Portland Estates was financed with a £35 mln loan provided by lender ING and reflecting a 55% loan-to-value.
The asset provides 4,600 m2 of space over three storeys and includes two retail units on the ground floor (let to The Window Film Company and Mikomax). Originally built in the 1970s, the asset was restructured in 2009 and is fully let to Kurt Geiger until 2035.
The deal is part of Antirion's international diversification strategy. In London the group bought 55 Wells Street in the West End for £65 mln in 2018. Historically known as Tasman House, the Fitzrovia property hosted a local court until 2016, when the former owner – Great Portland Estates – started demolition for redevelopment. The investor also co-owns with Brookfield the Amazon head office in London, which it bought three years ago for £246 mln.
Last year Antirion acquired the German headquarters of Thales Group in Stuttgart for €244.5 mln, financed with a €147 mln five-year loan from DekaBank, as well as Königsbau Passagen, a mixed-use property located in Stuttgart city centre, together with Poste Vita. The acquisition was finalised with landlord Evans Randall for a price of €280 mln, according to sources familiar with the transaction.
Earlier this month, PropertyEU also revealed that Antirion had acquired the historic headquarters of bank BNL in Rome's Via Veneto for €190 mln. The asset, a prime example of 1930s Italian architecture and formerly the headquarters of lender BNL Gruppo, was put up for sale by landlord BNP Paribas' BNL arm last year for a price of around €250 mln.
