French REIT Eurosic and its majority owned subsidiary SIIC de Paris are selling five office assets in the Paris region in two transactions to institutional investors for close to €500 mln.

French REIT Eurosic and its majority owned subsidiary SIIC de Paris are selling five office assets in the Paris region in two transactions to institutional investors for close to €500 mln.

In the first deal, signed on 8 July, Eurosic has sold Eurosic Grand Seine to an unnamed buyer for €183 mln, equal to the appraisal value at end-June this year.

Eurosic Grand Seine is located at 21 quai d'Austerlitz in the Seine Rive Gauche business district of Paris. The property was designed by architecture firm Wilmotte and delivered in 2005. It comprises 21,600 m2 of offices, shops and terraces and is the global headquarters of Natixis Global Asset Management.

In the second transaction, signed on 8 August, AEW Europe, acting on behalf of institutional clients, agreed to acquire four office assets totalling 27,000 m2 from SIIC de Paris. Three of the properties are located in the city of Paris (10-12 Rue de Tilsit, 2 rue du Quatre September, 8 rue Lavoisier), while the fourth, 8 rue François Ory, is in Montrouge, a commune in the southern suburbs of the French capital.

The investment volume for the four assets comes to €301 mln, slightly higher than the appraisal value at end-H1 2014.

'These sales, which cover nearly €500 mln in assets, continue Group Eurosic’s strategy that it has been implementing for the past three years: the rotation of its portfolio with the sale of mature assets and seeking new development projects. This all occurs with a view to improving the average portfolio returns,' Eurosic CEO Nicolas Ruggieri said.

The four SIIC de Paris assets are being sold as part of a tender process organised by Catella Property and BNP Paribas Real Estate.

Paris-listed Eurosic is a real estate investment trust (REIT or SIIC in France) that owns and manages a portfolio valued at nearly €3 bn at end-July 2014, consisting mainly of recent offices located in Paris, in the city's inner suburbs and major regional cities. Eurosic owns 92% of SIIC de Paris, which holds assets of €1.5 bn, or half of the total assets of the Eurosic-SIIC de Paris group.