Private equity real estate firm Benson Elliot Capital Management and the French real estate investment and development company Générale Continentale Investissements, (GCI) have teamed up to acquire a portfolio of six office properties in the Paris area for EUR 240 mln.
Private equity real estate firm Benson Elliot Capital Management and the French real estate investment and development company Générale Continentale Investissements, (GCI) have teamed up to acquire a portfolio of six office properties in the Paris area for EUR 240 mln.
The 38,000 m2 portfolio includes the famed Opera Italiens building in the ninth arrondissement of Paris. The property, formerly headquarters of the French daily Le Monde, currently houses France's Ministry of Justice. The remaining assets are spread across the 8th, 13th, and 16th arrondissements, as well as in the popular western suburb of Issy Les Moulineaux. Major tenants include publishing companies Editis and Pages Jaunes, as well as construction materials maker Lafarge.
The Paris acquisition is the third by Benson Elliot's real estate Fund II since the beginning of its investment programme in the fourth quarter of last year, and takes the fund's portfolio to circa EUR 500 mln. The purchase follows the EUR 120 mln investment in Denmark with Danish developer Sjælsø Gruppen, and last week's acquisition of the Deutsch-Japanische Center in Düsseldorf, through a joint venture with Germany's Event Holding.
Benson's Elliot Senior Partner Trish Geery Barrigan said: 'The acquisition demonstrates our confidence in the French property market. The market is strong, with healthy supply and demand factors underpinning the outlook. Particularly in and around Paris demand for high quality office space has reduced vacancy over the last few years, and we expect rental growth to be the result.'
Financing for the deal was arranged by Morgan Stanley Bank International.
Benson's fund invests in real estate assets across Europe that offer the potential for superior risk-adjusted returns through active and innovative investment management. It acquires completed properties, as well as funding development, primarily in the UK, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, France and central and eastern Europe.