Fund manager BNP Paribas REIM Sgr has mandated agent CBRE to sell a package of 11 government-let office buildings across Italy with a target price believed to be around €130 mln.

Fund manager BNP Paribas REIM Sgr has mandated agent CBRE to sell a package of 11 government-let office buildings across Italy with a target price believed to be around €130 mln.

The assets are owned by the Patrimonio Uno Fund, which was established in 2005 through the transfer of 75 state-owned assets in a major operation backed by the finance ministry.

The fund is currently entirely owned by institutional investors and owns assets fully let to the Italian state. It is due to be liquidated by year-end 2017.

The office properties for sale are located in northern Italy (Lombardia, Veneto, Liguria and Friuli-Venezia Giulia), central Italy (Tuscany) and southern Italy (Sardinia and Campania) and are home to several government agencies, including the police and customs agency.

The bulk of the portfolio - nine assets - is fully let to Agenzia del Demanio on a lease due for renewal on December 31, 2023. The portfolio currently generates an annual revenue of €12 mln.

If completed, the deal will leave Patrimonio Uno with just under 30 assets due to be sold in the next 24 months.

'We have seen an increased level of international investment in to Italian commercial real estate over the last twenty-four months, which has helped lead the recovery of the market,' commented Paolo Bellacosa, managing director, Capital Markets - CBRE Italy. 'However, Italian real estate continues to evolve, and with the prospect of further changes to interest rates and the introduction of quantitative easing, we anticipate our market is likely to see a new wave of international investors, to whom such a portfolio would be very attractive.'

The move by BNP Paribas REIM follows the successful sale in August last year of a another Patrimonio Uno package to Cerberus. The US private equity fund made its first foray into the Italian real estate market at the time with the purchase of a portfolio of seven office buildings and barracks held by the closed-end fund.

Cerberus, which made the purchase through the C1 Investment Fund managed by Cordea Savills Sgr, bought the assets located in Senigallia, Pescara, Padoa, Mestre, Florence, Vicenza and Genoa for some €90 mln. In total, the properties provide some 85,000 m2 and are let entirely to the Police and the Customs Agency on long-term rental agreements.

Meanwhile, Cerberus is also believed to be in negotiations with Fondi Immobili Pubblici (FIP), a state-owned fund managed by Investire Immobiliare Sgr, to buy a sub-portfolio consisting of three army barracks in Bari, Rome and Bergamo as well as a number of other smaller assets across Italy. The US investor has been granted exclusivity on this package which is expected to fetch around €250 mln.

Launched in 2004, FIP was the first real estate fund to be created by the Italian government as part of a major privatisation effort and owns around 400 buildings across the country.