Kuwaiti family office AW Properties, the Al Wazzan family’s real estate company, has acquired an office complex in Celtic Springs Business Park, Newport, South Wales, from Gulf Islamic Investments Group (GII).
Financial details were not disclosed, but the vendor revealed that the sale marked the largest South Wales office transaction in the last 12 months.
The transaction marks AW Properties’ debut UK real estate deal, with the asset comprising three fully-let, high-quality office buildings of over 150,000 ft2 (14,000 m2) let to a single tenant.
Rawia Guedri, chief financial officer of Al Wazzan Family Office, said: 'We are delighted that our debut commercial property acquisition in the UK involves a well located office with strong fundamentals and income growth opportunities.
'The opportunity satisfies our investment criteria, offering numerous benefits including a long-term secure lease with fixed rental uplifts to a large global blue-chip occupier who have already committed capital to refurbish and further upgrade the building.'
GII acquired the office complex in 2015 as its first UK real estate deal. Its exit follows a successful regearing of the lease to a leading global aerospace corporation on a new fifteen-year term, enabling the tenant to consolidate and continue its tenure at the site.
Mohammed Alhassan, co-founder and co-CEO of GII, said: 'We are delighted to announce this exit, particularly after recent market uncertainty. We engaged GII’s best-in-class team to unlock value through a series of asset management initiatives, including financing and regearing.
'This demonstrates our ability to put our strategy into action. Managing and repositioning the asset successfully for long-term investors illustrates our capacity to create significant value and unlock our investments’ full potential.
'GII’s investor distributions now total almost $600 mln (€550 mln), with an exit pipeline of some $200 mln. We continue to grow our existing portfolio this year across Europe and beyond.'
Pankaj Gupta, co-founder and co-CEO of GII, added: 'Following recent lease regearing with the tenant, we managed to enhance the certainty of long-term income significantly for this institutional quality asset in south Wales.
'This investment is testimony to GII’s stringent selection criteria and hands-on asset management, fostering above-average returns for its investors. Our tailored approach to each of our properties allowed us to secure an ‘off-market’ sale.
'GII’s in-depth analysis of each investment’s macro and micro market aspects allows us to unlock property potential that others might miss, ensuring top value for our clients and partners.'
The deal marks is the largest South Wales commercial property deal in the past twelve months, and the biggest real estate transaction in the business parks along the M4 transport corridor for several years.
GII is a UAE-based global alternative investment company with over $3 bn of assets under management.
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