German investor Commerz Real has confirmed it is considering the sale of the so-called High Five portfolio of five office buildings in Paris.
German investor Commerz Real has confirmed it is considering the sale of the so-called High Five portfolio of five office buildings in Paris.
'We are considering to sell the portfolio,' a company spokesman said, declining to provide further details.
The €650 mln package is expected to trade before year end, according to press reports. It consists of five buildings offering a total of 84,000 m2 of office space at Av. Kléber in Paris, in the inner suburbs of Neuilly and Saint-Ouen, and in the Montrouge district.
Earlier this month Commerz Real sold its nearly 60% stake in the Parisian office REIT Cegereal to US privately-held firm Northwood Investors for €285 mln.
Commerz Real was behind Cegereal's creation in 2006, when it set up the company as a tax-efficient vehicle for the Paris office assets held by its Hausinvest open-ended fund. Today, Cegereal is the first French property company with a full environmentally-certified portfolio. ‘The CeGeReal participation has made a good contribution to the performance of hausInvest over a period of 10 years,’ commented Andreas Muschter, Chief Executive Officer of Commerz Real. ‘With the objective of achieving greater diversification we are currently orienting the hausInvest portfolio more strongly to retail, hotel and residential space. So as to ensure hausInvest greater flexibility on the French market and to provide CeGeReal with greater leeway for its further growth, we are exploiting the demand for high-quality office properties and selling the stake.’
Cegereal owns a 125,000 m2 portfolio of three large office buildings on the edge of Paris – Arcs de Seine in Boulogne-Billancourt, Rives de Bercy in Charenton-le-Pont and Europlaza in Dourbevoie-La Défense.
