In its first real estate transaction in the Netherlands, Chinese Insurance group Anbang has acquired office properties worth more than €500 mln from US private equity group Blackstone.
According to news wire Bloomberg, the properties were purchased through Vivat, the Dutch insurer acquired by Anbang last year.
Cushman & Wakefield confirmed to PropertyEU on Wednesday that it acted as adviser to Anbang on the transaction but declined to provide further details. CBRE acted for Blackstone.
The properties involved in the deal have not been disclosed but are believed to include the Cross Towers in Amsterdam; Weenatoren and 200Weena in Rotterdam; and Forum, Sirius and Orion in The Hague, which Blackstone acquired for €165 mln in 2013. The assets were put on the market two months ago.
Blackstone acquired a number of Dutch office assets between 2013 and 2015, when the Dutch market was bottoming out and a wave of opportunistic private equity investors entered the fray. Other Dutch properties owned by Blackstone include Lotus A and B in Rotterdam Alexander, De Brug (Unilever office) in Rotterdam, Westgate in Riekerpolder Amsterdam (PwC HQ), Capgemini’s office in Utrecht Leidsche Rijn and DHVRoyalHaskoning’s HQ in Amersfoort.
Anbang has acquired property from Blackstone before in other countries, such as the Astoria Hotel in New York which it purchased for $2 bn in 2014. And last month, Anbang completed its $6.5 bn acquisition of Strategic Hotels & Resorts from the US private equity giant.
As the Dutch economy recovers and demand for office space grows, property investors who bought into the market at the trough of the cycle are now cashing in on their gains and selling out.
Prime office buildings in Amsterdam, for example, are yielding about 5% compared with 4.35% in New York and 2.8% in Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield said in a report on Tuesday.
