Goldman Sachs, Valad bag Zenith portfolio in the Netherlands

Goldman Sachs and Valad Europe have joined forces to acquire the Zenith Portfolio in the Netherlands from vendor Altera Vastgoed for a price understood to be around €217 mln.

Valad will also assume responsibility for the ongoing asset management of the 25-strong portfolio, which was last valued at €180 mln (per end June 2015).

The portfolio comprises 180,000 m2 of space, made up of 18 office buildings (111,921 m2) and seven (68,664 m2) industrial assets.

More than three quarters of the portfolio is located in the Randstad conurbation, which includes three of the largest Dutch cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht. It is currently let to 98 tenants including UWV, Intertrust, Blue Sky Group and Funda.

'The Zenith Portfolio comprises some high quality, well-known buildings and adds to our already strong portfolio in the Netherlands,' said Mark McLaughlin, Valad Europe’s head of Benelux. 'The work we have done for Goldman Sachs to date on the Omikron and Chronos portfolios, in deploying our local knowledge and value-adding asset management strategies, means we are well placed to take on the on-going management of the Zenith Portfolio.'

René Hogenboom, CEO of Altera Vastgoed, added: 'The sale of the Zenith portfolio follows the investment focus in the Netherlands on our residential, retail and light industrial portfolios. We have also opened up our fund to include, both domestic and foreign, insurance companies and other professional investors, alongside our existing Dutch pension fund investors. As a result we are selling our office portfolio and some light industrial assets to restructure that portfolio.'

The Zenith Portfolio comprises assets such as Prins Bernardplein 200 in Amsterdam (21,852 m2), Piet Heinkade 167-173 in Amsterdam (6,131 m2) and Moeder Teresalaan 100-200 in Utrecht (22,218 m2).

CBRE advised Valad Europe and Goldman Sachs on the purchase. DTZ Zadelhoff and BNP Paribas Real Estate advised Altera Vastgoed. Loyens & Loeff advised the purchaser and Boekel advised the vendor in legal matters.