Brussels-based real estate investment vehicle Befimmo is to issue shares to raise between EUR 180 mln and EUR 200 mln following the coup at the end of December when it snatched a Belgium government real estate contract from rival Cofinimmo.

Brussels-based real estate investment vehicle Befimmo is to issue shares to raise between EUR 180 mln and EUR 200 mln following the coup at the end of December when it snatched a Belgium government real estate contract from rival Cofinimmo.

Beniot De Blieck, managing director of Befimmo, told newspaper L'Echo on 28 December that the share issue will be used to bring the company's debt-to-equity ratio down to about 50% to facilitate further acquisitions.

Befimmo pulled off a major surprise on 27 December when the Belgium government named the company as its partner in Fedimmo, a real estate portfolio comprising 62 buildings principally for office use, occupied by Belgian government departments and EU agencies.

Befimmo bid EUR 578 mln to acquire a 90% stake in the 382,000 m2 portfolio which is let to the government on average leases of 17 years. The remaining 10% of Fedimmo is held by the federal government.

Market watchers had expected Cofinimmo to retain the contract it had initially been awarded months earlier. The decision was nullified after Befimmo and Axa Belgium cited procedural problems in the tendering process. Cofinimmo's ceo Serge Fautre told L'Echo he was disappointed to loss the contract but will not challenge the naming of Befimmo as the government's partner.