SEB Asset Management's ImmoInvest open-ended property fund has sold the EuroCentre office building in Lille to an unnamed French institutional investor.
SEB Asset Management's ImmoInvest open-ended property fund has sold the EuroCentre office building in Lille to an unnamed French institutional investor.
The sale price is around 22% higher than the purchase price and around 13% above the current market value.
The fund management company had purchased the EuroCentre building as a development project for €20.6 mln and added it to ImmoInvest's portfolio on completion in 2006. ImmoInvest is now in liquidation and selling off its assets.
The multi-tenant office property is located in the Euralille office district in the city of Lille, the third most important financial centre in France. A new lease was signed in the summer for 600 m2 of office space on the ground floor, bringing the nine-storey building with over 7,470 m2 of space to full occupancy.
The transaction took place at a time when demand for prime properties in established regional centres is clearly increasing, according to Barbara Knoflach, CEO of SEB Asset Management. 'The successful sale demonstrates both the quality of the investment and that the asset management approach was right.'
Ownership of the Lille asset has been transferred and SEB Asset Management said it is 'holding promising negotiations' on further property sales with potential investors.
SEB Asset Management also announced that ImmoInvest to distribute a further €128 mln to ImmoInvest's investors. About €1.10 per unit is to be paid out to investors in a fourth return of capital on 2 January 2014. This represents a distribution of around 3% of the current fund assets of €4.2 bn.
This payment brings the amount paid out to investors in the first 20 months since the fund's dissolution was announced in May 2012 to €15.75 per unit certificate. This corresponds to a total of €1.8 bn, or around 31% of fund assets. The distributions are made at half-yearly intervals.