A joint venture between Angola’s central bank and LaSalle Investment Management (LIM) is selling a global property portfolio for €1 bn, Mike Phillips, editor of EuroProperty, can reveal.
The deal is expected to net a significant profit for the vendors.
Plaza Global Real Estate Partners, a joint venture between the central bank’s adviser Quantum Global Real Estate and LIM, has appointed JLL to sell the portfolio of four assets, which includes prime West End of London office building 23 Savile Row.
The sale will be seen as a test of the appetite of global investors for very large portfolios with assets of mixed quality. The assets could be sold as a portfolio or broken up.
A sale at €1 bn would also generate a large profit for the government of Angola, which is trying to improve its infrastructure and political and social institutions. The portfolio was bought for €650 mln over a two-year period.
Quantum Global Real Estate is part of investment manager Quantum Global, which advises African clients on investments in multiple asset classes. When the Plaza joint venture was announced in February 2002, it was not mentioned that Quantum was investing on behalf of the Banco Nacional de Angola.
But in November 2013 Angola’s $5 bn sovereign wealth fund, the Fondo Soberano de Angola, issued a statement clarifying that it was the central bank rather than the sovereign wealth fund which was the investor behind Plaza, after it was reported that the sovereign wealth fund had been behind the purchase of 23 Savile Row.
Global spending spree
Plaza bought the 9,290 m2 property at 23 Savile Row in August 2012 for £210 mln (€248 mln), or a 3.7% yield. In October 2012 it bought a 49.5% share in the 42,735 m2 521 Fifth Avenue in New York in a deal which valued the building at $310 mln, with Plaza paying the equivalent of €147 mln for its share.
In October 2014 it bought the 25,783 m2 Tour Blanche office tower in La Défense in Paris for €161 mln; and in September 2015 it bought the 43,000 m2 Atrium in Munich for a reported €100 mln.
The building at 23 Savile Row is seen as the jewel in the crown of the portfolio, given it is a new building developed in the last five years which is fully let at rents of up to £110/sq ft.
The part stake in the New York asset is seen as the most difficult.
Angola has extensive oil and mineral reserves and in the last decade was one of the world’s fastest growing economies, with average annual economic growth of 11.1%.
Despite this it is a country of vast inequality, with around a third of the population earning a living through subsistence farming. Oil provides 50% of GDP and as such the recent fall in oil prices has hit the country.
The sale will be seen as a test of the appetite of global investors for very large portfolios with assets of mixed quality. The assets could be sold as a portfolio or broken up.
A sale at €1 bn would also generate a large profit for the government of Angola, which is trying to improve its infrastructure and political and social institutions. The portfolio was bought for €650 mln over a two-year period.
Quantum Global Real Estate is part of investment manager Quantum Global, which advises African clients on investments in multiple asset classes. When the Plaza joint venture was announced in February 2002, it was not mentioned that Quantum was investing on behalf of the Banco Nacional de Angola.
But in November 2013 Angola’s $5 bn sovereign wealth fund, the Fondo Soberano de Angola, issued a statement clarifying that it was the central bank rather than the sovereign wealth fund which was the investor behind Plaza, after it was reported that the sovereign wealth fund had been behind the purchase of 23 Savile Row.
Global spending spree
Plaza bought the 9,290 m2 property at 23 Savile Row in August 2012 for £210 mln (€248 mln), or a 3.7% yield. In October 2012 it bought a 49.5% share in the 42,735 m2 521 Fifth Avenue in New York in a deal which valued the building at $310 mln, with Plaza paying the equivalent of €147 mln for its share.
In October 2014 it bought the 25,783 m2 Tour Blanche office tower in La Défense in Paris for €161 mln; and in September 2015 it bought the 43,000 m2 Atrium in Munich for a reported €100 mln.
The building at 23 Savile Row is seen as the jewel in the crown of the portfolio, given it is a new building developed in the last five years which is fully let at rents of up to £110/sq ft.
The part stake in the New York asset is seen as the most difficult.
Angola has extensive oil and mineral reserves and in the last decade was one of the world’s fastest growing economies, with average annual economic growth of 11.1%.
Despite this it is a country of vast inequality, with around a third of the population earning a living through subsistence farming. Oil provides 50% of GDP and as such the recent fall in oil prices has hit the country.
LaSalle declined to comment. Quantum Global did not respond to requests for comment.
EuroProperty is part of the PropertyEU group.
