Norwegian Property agrees €87m sale of Oslo asset

Norwegian Property has entered into an agreement to sell the Nedre Skøyen Vei 24-26 office building in Oslo to Veidekke Eiendom, the property arm of the listed construction company Veidekke.

The parties have agreed to a handover of the property in March 2019 at the expiry of the lease contract with the tenant Evry, with Norwegian Property keeping the revenues and the operational responsibility of the property until delivery.

Veidekke has agreed to pay NOK 799 mln (€87 mln), of which NOK 50 mln as deposit due in September 2015.

The 36,000 m2 property has long been the Oslo headquarters of Evry (previously EDB Ergo Group and Fellesdata), and is today fully let to Evry until the end of February 2019. Evry currently uses only a small part of the property, and re-lets a majority of it. The asset generates annual rents of NOK 79.3 mln.

'The current buildings are to a large extent built in the early eighties and accommodated to Evry’s needs, including large data centres. We have for some time worked on different projects and alternatives for the property when the current rental contract expires in 2019. A residential conversion, possibly in combination with some commercial usage, appears to be the most value creating alternative in today’s market. We are therefore very happy to enter into a transaction with Veidekke,' said Svein Hov Skjelle, CEO of Norwegian Property.