Pan-European investor M7 Real Estate has acquired a portfolio of office and light industrial assets from Valad Europe for €63.5 mln.
The 10-asset portfolio deal, comprising properties located in key German cities with a total floor area of 103,000 m2, was made on behalf of M7 European Real Estate Investment Partners IV (EREIP IV). Valad is a investment specialist in multi-let real estate.
'We acquired this portfolio because it provides both a mix of strong and diverse income profiles, combined with a range of opportunities to enhance capital and rental values, and we now plan to achieve significant medium term growth in the value of the portfolio through a targeted asset management programme,' commented Alyssa Huse, managing director of M7 Germany.
Two of the asset provide 38,000 m2 of office space in central Düsseldorf, and are 48% let. The remaining eight are light industrial properties, with a total lettable area of 64,800 m2. Three of these are situated in Lohfelden near Kassel, two are in Ottobrunn close to Munich, while the others are in Regensburg, the nearby town of Barbing and Langenfeld near Düsseldorf. These assets are around 68% let to a range of tenants.
Following this acquisition, M7 manages 77 properties in Germany, with a total floor area exceeding 828,000 m2 and an investment volume of €463 mln.
'The High Return Portfolio, part of a larger asset management mandate, was marketed for sale in second quarter 2016. This was an optimum time for us to dispose of the assets which resulted in us achieving the targets of the mandate set in 2013 when Valad was first appointed. We are delighted with the outcome,' concluded Danilo Hunker, head of Germany at Valad Europe.
Simmons & Simmons acted as the purchaser's legal adviser. Gleeds Deutschland carried out the technical due diligence and Ambiente the environmental due diligence.
Colliers International organised the structured tendering process for the vendor, while Berwin Leighton Paisner provided legal consultancy services.
