Northcliffe completes sale-and-leaseback deal in Germany

Northcliffe Asset Management, a global sale-leaseback investment manager, announced that its affiliated investment vehicle ThreadGreen Industrial has completed the acquisition of the primary production and office properties of German manufacturing company Coperion. The total transaction size of the sale-and-leaseback transaction was EUR 27 mln.

The assets, totalling over 50,000 m2, are located in Stuttgart and Baienfurt, Germany. Coperion has committed to a 20-year lease on the properties. Northcliffe and Coperion will jointly fund and manage the re-development and refurbishment of the Stuttgart location.

Alistair Calvert, Managing Partner of Northcliffe in Europe, said that the opportunities in sale-leaseback transactions have never been greater with the spread between the rental yield on these investments and financing costs at close to historic highs.

Constrained capital markets and the over-leveraged corporate sector have resulted in a huge supply of transactions. The undeveloped nature of the European market - which at $4 trn has twice the level of owner occupied commercial property of the US - suggests that this deal supply will continue, the company said.