Titanium, the joint venture between AXA IM Alts, the global fund manager's alternative investment arm, and business park specialist Sirius Real Estate, has acquired the Sigma Technopark in Augsburg for €80 mln from a German special fund managed by Corestate Group.
The income-yielding deal, representing a net initial yield of 6.0%, increases the size of the Titanium portfolio to €317 mln, nearly double its value at launch in August 2019 (€168 mln).
The seven business parks in the joint venture are operated by Sirius through its Germany-wide platform. The acquisition has been made on behalf of clients through AXA IM Alts’ Real Assets platform, and is subject to approval by the German completion authority.
Sigma Technopark, which will be rebranded as a Sirius business park, is a multi-tenanted business park comprising 113,000 m2 of space across a range of uses. In addition to over 1,500 parking spaces, the park also offers a range of onsite amenities including a canteen.
John O’Driscoll, head of European transactions at AXA IM Alts, commented: 'This transaction further extends the portfolio of business parks we hold in our Titanium joint venture with Sirius Real Estate.
'It is a high quality asset in a sector that has proven to be robust and resilient throughout the COVID-19 crisis both in terms of occupancy and rent collection. Our ambitions to grow this joint venture are strengthened and we look forward to working with Sirius Real Estate on this and future opportunities.'
The business park, in Augsburg, Bavaria, is currently 90% let to 74 tenants ranging in size from blue chip corporates and public bodies through to SMEs and start-ups. These are diversified across numerous sectors including electronic production, educational organisations such as universities, logistics and technology.
Andrew Coombs, Sirius Real Estate CEO, said: 'This acquisition is a great example of the type of assets in which we want to invest alongside AXA IM Alts in the Titanium joint venture. It is a well located, large scale business park which offers both good quality day one income as well as an opportunity to grow rental income and create value through asset management.
'Alongside AXA IM Alts we have strong ambitions to grow the Titanium portfolio significantly and have a strong pipeline of further opportunities that we continue to explore.'
Titanium was formed in August 2019 when AXA IM Alts completed the acquisition, on behalf of clients, of a 65% stake in five German business parks, from Sirius, which retained the remaining 35%.
The joint venture aims to grow primarily through the acquisition of larger stabilised business park assets and portfolios with strong tenant profiles and occupancy. This transaction follows Titanium’s acquisition in March 2020 of a German business park in Hilden, Düsseldorf, for €59 mln.
