CBRE, King Sturge act in EUR 330m German industrial deal

CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has said it advised BGP on the conditional sale of the EUR 330 mln HBI German industrial property portfolio, which was a former joint venture between Australian fund managers GPT and Babcock & Brown. King Sturge advised the purchaser Hansteen Holdings.

Peter Cooper-Parry, executive director of Capital Markets, CBRE, said: 'This has been a complex instruction involving a significant number of stakeholders and we are pleased to have had the opportunity to work with all the parties involved and deliver this result. The portfolio will benefit from a fresh injection of capital expenditure and is ideally suited to Hansteen's intensive active management approach.'

James Markby, head of Cross-Border Industrial Investment, CBRE, said: 'This will be the largest industrial investment transaction to be concluded in the European property market since late 2007. There is currently a competitive demand for light industrial assets and in particular deliverable portfolios across Europe. Debt structuring was required to make this deal successful and a very proactive approach was applied by the banks involved to deliver ongoing lending for this strategic sale.'

The portfolio comprises 34 multi-let industrial assets located across Germany providing a total of 860,000 m². The average weighted lease length across the portfolio is approximately two years and over 900 tenants occupy the properties. The portfolio has a current rent of EUR 30.3 mln per annum and, with a vacancy rate of around 24%, offers significant asset management opportunities.