Cain International, the privately held real estate investment firm, has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of eight office parks across Spain from Merlin Properties, the Spanish-listed REIT, for €225 mln.
The deal was tipped last week in EuroProperty, PropertyEU's sister magazine.
The portfolio, which comprises six office parks in Madrid and two in Barcelona, has a total area of 133,000 m2. It is around three-quarters let, offering significant opportunities to add value through securing additional tenants, refurbishment and redevelopment, Cain said.
Cain’s partner on the transaction is FREO Group, with whom they have an existing joint venture for the development of a 15,000 m2 Class A office development in the 22@ district of Barcelona.
Daniel Harris, head of European investments at Cain, said: 'The Spanish office market is experiencing significant growth, with rents increasing and vacancy reducing, and these well-located assets offer substantial scope for value creation through a granular approach.
'We are pleased to be adding to our portfolio through this deal and are actively continuing to seek out further investment opportunities. With this acquisition, our development in 22@ in Barcelona and our current pipeline, we are aggregating a portfolio of close to €500m which demonstrates our confidence in the current cyclical opportunity in Spain.'
In June, the firm announced it had signed six deals valued at €1 bn in the past 18 months. With this closing and the current pipeline of transactions, the firm expects to double its European portfolio to €2 bn by the end of 2020.
Cain and FREO were advised by Herbert Smith Freehills, Garrigues and JLL. The vendor was advised by Uría Menéndez.
Financing for the transaction was arranged by Starwood Property Trust and Starwood European Finance Partners.
