A Singapore-based investor has acquired the Torre Ocidente office tower in Lisbon from an international consortium including Sonae Sierra and CBRE Global Investors.

A Singapore-based investor has acquired the Torre Ocidente office tower in Lisbon from an international consortium including Sonae Sierra and CBRE Global Investors.

The identity of the buyer and financial details were not disclosed, but PropertyEU has established the investment volume was around €75 mln.

Besides Sonae Sierra and CBRE GI, the selling consortium consisted of Caixa Geral de Depósitos bank and Spain's Iberdrola Inmobiliaria.

Cushman & Wakefield, which acted for the sellers, put the 14-storey, 29,000 m2 tower on the market in March this year with a price tag of over €70 mln.

António Camilo Alves, head of business space investment in C&W Portugal’s capital markets department, said in a statement: ‘The size of this transaction, the buyer’s motivation and the quality of the product, underline the confidence of international investor community in the Portuguese economy, the local real estate market and in this exceptional asset.’

Completed in 2011, Torre Ocidente forms part of the Colombo development in the Portuguese capital, which includes the Centro Colombo shopping centre and twin tower Torre Oriente, which was bought by Union Investment Real Estate in 2010 for its open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Global.

Torre Ocidente is fully let to tenants including BNP Paribas, Sonae Sierra, Lilly Portugal, Manpower Group Solutions, WS Atkins, Leo Pharma, Viacom and Arvato.

Investment spree
According to figures released in late July by real estate consultant Worx, investment in the Portguese real estate sector exceeded €1 bn in the first half of 2015, approaching the record levels seen in 2006.

Foreign investors, particularly American players like private equity giant Blackstone, are among the biggest buyers. Blackstone has reportedly acquired over €400 mln in real estate assets so far this year, including the Almada Forum and Forum Montijo shopping centres in Lisbon.

Prime office yields for Lisbon stood at 6% in Q2, according to CBRE's latest EMEA Rents and Yields report.