French listed property firm Gecina has sold the headquarters of car manufacturer BMW at Avenida de Burgos in Madrid to a REIT managed by IBA Capital Partners for around €41 mln.

French listed property firm Gecina has sold the headquarters of car manufacturer BMW at Avenida de Burgos in Madrid to a REIT managed by IBA Capital Partners for around €41 mln.

The disposal is in line with the company's strategy to refocus its portfolio on its core business - mainly offices and nursing homes in France. Over the past three years, the French REIT has divested its logistics business, the holiday villages portfolio as well as the Beaugrenelle shopping centre.

The most recent sale involves a 11,000 m2 office building with fully let to BMW under a recently renegotiated 10-year lease.

'Gecina has successfully capitalized on the Spanish real estate market upturn to sell its last office asset in Spain, securing a significant sales premium compared with the appraisal value at June 30, 2014,' the company said in a statement.

Gecina was advised by Resource Capital Partners, Jones Lang LaSalle, CBRE and law firm Almagro. The buyer was advised by Gomez Acebo y Pombo and EC Harris Arcadis.

Gecina owns a €10.2 bn portfolio largely located in the Paris Region.

IBA has been very active in Spain in the recent past. In July last year the firm, which was founded by Jesús Valderrama and Thierry Julienne, two directors of Abedo Asset Management, and Sergio García of the Swiss Batex multi-family office, bought the Edificio Princ office building in Madrid's Piramides district from German fund manager KanAm Grund.

In February 2014 the firm bought the Torres Agora high-rise office complex in Madrid for €73 mln, entirely in cash, while a month earlier it acquired the ABC Serrano shopping centre and a 20,000 m2 office building in Madrid for a price believed to be around €100 mln.