Koreans buy Brussels' Astro tower in €156m deal with Luresa

German investor Patrizia Immobilien has exchanged contracts to acquire the Astro Tower in Brussels on behalf of a Korean consortium which reportedly includes Korea Investment & Securities Co.

Although financial details were not disclosed, Korean news website Pulse reported the price was €156 mln, a few millions short of the owner's initial asking price.

PropertyEU reported in March last year that Spanish property company Luresa, a subsidiary of the Union Resinera Espanola group, had put the 107-metre high office tower on the market with a price tag of €160 mln, or a record low yield of 4.5%.

Luresa bought the scheme in 2008 for about €100 mln from a consortium of Dutch lender SNS Property Finance (now nationalised bad bank Propertize) and developer Hugenholtz Property Group Belgium (HPG).

Built in 1976, the 33-storey building consists of 36,000 m2 of office space and 250 parking spaces. It was entensively refurbished by the previous owner which invested just under €100 mln in the building. Located on the edge of the Leopold district, the property is fully leased to the employment administration office with a 26-year fixed lease, starting in October of this year.

'Thanks to our pan-European positioning and special expertise, we have once more succeeded in identifying a highly attractive real estate investment for our Asian clients,' commented Konrad Finkenzeller, Head of Institutional Clients International at Patrizia.

The deal is the second major investment by an Asian Group in Brussels since the beginning of the year. Taiwanese insurer Fubon Life last month emerged as the buyer of Brussels' Ellipse building in a €215 mln share deal with developer AG Real Estate.

'Owing to the complex challenges, Asian investors place their trust in strategic partners who help them to realise their global investment strategy,' Finkenzeller continued.