Michael Evans has once again proved he has a real knack for the big deals - only this time he has cashed in on a sale rather than scooping his competitors to secure a trophy building. His private investment bank Evans Randall has made a staggering £46 mln (almost EUR 70 mln) from the sale of Dutch bank ABN Amro’s City of London headquarters. Evans Randall raised some eyebrows in property circles when it acquired the property at 250 Bishopsgate from ABN Amro in a sale-and-leaseback deal in July 2005 for £184 mln - reflecting a record low initial yield at the time of 4.25%.

Michael Evans has once again proved he has a real knack for the big deals - only this time he has cashed in on a sale rather than scooping his competitors to secure a trophy building. His private investment bank Evans Randall has made a staggering £46 mln (almost EUR 70 mln) from the sale of Dutch bank ABN Amro’s City of London headquarters. Evans Randall raised some eyebrows in property circles when it acquired the property at 250 Bishopsgate from ABN Amro in a sale-and-leaseback deal in July 2005 for £184 mln - reflecting a record low initial yield at the time of 4.25%.

Now, cashing in on the sharp rise in demand and prices for City offices, Evans Randall has transformed the mild scepticism to admiration by selling the office complex to UK insurer Prudential for £230 mln (EUR 340 mln). This means an initial yield of 3.5% for the buyer, but a gross profit of 40% for Evans Randall and an internal rate of return of 35%. ABN Amro retains a 30-year lease on the property, which it signed at the time of the Evans Randall purchase. The Dutch bank's own future is less certain as it is caught in the middle of a nail-biting takeover battle between Barclays and a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Both prospective 'merger' partners have conceded they intend to cut jobs at ABN Amro should they gain control, but it remains unclear which divisions would feel the axe - if and when a takeover deal is finalised. Meanwhile, Evans' own bank is sitting pretty.

In February this year, Evans Randall teamed up with Germany’s IVG Immobilien to acquire the Swiss Re building at 30 St Mary Axe, affectionately known as the 'Gherkin', in the City of London for a record-breaking £630 mln. Again the yield of 4.5% was well below the current 5.4% yield for 10-year government bond. Then last April, Evans Randall acquired a landmark office development in Amsterdam for EUR 165 mln.

The June issue of PropertyEU Magazine features an exclusive interview with Michael Evans in which he outlines his strategy of teaming up with partners to share the financial burden of targeting ‘trophy’ buildings deals in major European cities. You can order your copy of the magazine by clicking on the link below.