AXA Immoselect continues to sell assets at discount

AXA Real Estate’s Immoselect open-ended fund in liquidation continues to shed assets at a discount. The latest example involved the sale of its 49% share in the P1 portfolio in Warsaw to joint venture partner CA Immo.

The total market value of the portfolio was €280 mln, according to the last appraisal carried out on in September 2013.

However, Vienna-listed CA Immo said the fund's interest was acquired below the current net asset value (NAV) of the portfolio. Financial details were not disclosed. Closing for the transaction is expected in 2013.

The portfolio comprises the Sienna Center, Saski Crescent, Saski Point, Bitwy Warszawskiej and Warsaw Towers office properties, which offer a combined usable space of around 125,000 m2. Four of the buildings are located in Warsaw’s Central Business District (CBD).

'Alongside the selective repayment of liabilities, the acquisition of 49% of these core properties in Warsaw, one of our most important strategic markets, is a big first step in the effective utilisation of significant capital inflows from recent sales transactions,' said CA Immo's CEO Bruno Ettenauer.

'The investment will consolidate our presence in prime areas of Warsaw while significantly raising our cash flow from investment properties over the long term. This transaction also enables us to acquire attractive core properties below present market values, which will have a suitably positive impact on the NAV of CA Immo,' Ettenauer added.

The deal would be the latest completed by AXA Immoselect below market value. Last month, the fund divested the Perspective Defénse office scheme to the north of Paris for a bargain price. The sales price of €126.5 mln represented a 21% discount to the asset’s appraised market value per end-April 2013, and a discount of nearly 30% to the asset's value only a year before. AXA Immoselect had bought the asset in May 2008 from a joint venture of developer Altarea Cogedim and AXA for €170 mln.

AXA announced in late 2011 that it planned to liquidate its frozen €2.5 bn Immoselect fund. Earlier this year, the fund sold a portfolio of Dutch secondary properties for €140 mln, a 40% discount to the most recent independent valuation.

Also in the autumn, AXA Immoselect sold the Grafenberger Höfe building in Dusseldorf for €30.5 mln, representing a 21% discount to the asset’s most recent market value. The property was valued at €42.5 mln at end April 2012.

PropertyEU understands the fund is also close to selling its six-property strong portfolio in Italy, encompassing over 250,000 m2 of commercial space. The fund manager has hired Cushman & Wakefield to divest the €350 mln worth of assets which include two shopping centres and two large major logistics properties.

The portfolio includes two shopping centres, the 39,000 m2 Brebemi at Strada statale 11 in Bergamo valued at €108 mln and the 16,000 m2 La scaglia in Civitavecchia worth some €24 mln.

Other assets are the 103,000 m2 Tortona Logistic Centrum valued at €49 and a 41,000 m2 industrial asset at Via Canapi in Oleggio valued at €15 mln, as well as the 26,000 m2 Nhow hotel at Via Tortona 35 in Milan, which is operated by Hauptmie with a contract running through 2021, and was last valued at €47 mln; and a 32,700 m2 office building at viale Parco dei Medici in Rome, last valued at €91 mln.