A joint venture of Korean pension fund NPS and US developer Hines is in exclusive talks to buy Morgan Stanley's Sony Center in Berlin for just over EUR 500 mln, well-informed sources have told PropertyEU.
A joint venture of Korean pension fund NPS and US developer Hines is in exclusive talks to buy Morgan Stanley's Sony Center in Berlin for just over EUR 500 mln, well-informed sources have told PropertyEU.
Morgan Stanley's MSREF fund is set to make a heavy loss on the disposal, after buying the 135,000 m2 asset for around EUR 600 mln in mid-2008, sources said. BNP Paribas is believed to be advising on the sale.
In March, Europroperty magazine first reported the acquisition, which would mark the entrance of the Korean investor in Continental Europe, after its purchase of the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf for £772 mln (EUR 880 mln) in late 2009. Hines has been active in Germany in the past months. It sold Die Mitte shopping centre to Commerz Real for EUR 127 mln in the second part of 2009 and last month bought its first asset in Hamburg, Domkaskaden from German developer Quantum Immobilien.
Sony Center has been on the market for over six months. The property consists of office space let to Deutsche Bahn but also a cinema and some retail elements.
Morgan Stanley was one of Germany's largest real estate investors before the outbreak of the global financial crisis, but has since retreated from the market. In late 2009, Morgan Stanley sold the Park Tower in Frankfurt to Deutsche Bank's RREEF for EUR 119 mln, or a net yield of below 5%, and also divested the Mercado centre in Hamburg for EUR 164 mln, or a yield of 5.8%.
Earlier this year, the investment bank also handed back the key of the EUR 2 bn Pegasus portfolio to its lender, RBS. Pegasus, including 28 commercial properties such as the Frankfurter Welle and the Neue Kranzler Eck in Berlin, was bought from Union Investment with a EUR 1.9 bn loan from RBS in 2007.