Sirius Real Estate has bought its largest investment so far for its UK BizSpace brand and sold a Frankfurt site to a data centre developer.
The UK listed owner/operator of business and industrial parks has exchanged contracts to buy Vantage Point Business Village in Gloucestershire in the UK for £48.25 mln (€56.4 mln) and sold the Frankfurt site in Maintal for €40.1 mln.
The UK site spans 60 acres with about 1.5 million ft2 of office, logistics and industrial space and was formerly the manufacturing hub of Rank Xerox. The seller, a private high net worth investor, is believed to have originally put the real estate and its asset management company on the market with a £60 mln price tag.
The transaction price, which reflects a net initial yield of 10.2%, also includes the solar power company which supplies most of the electricity for the 119 units. Andrew Coombs, Sirius's CEO, told PropertyEU that the panels will be replaced with more efficient, modern ones which should be able to double capacity and enable BizSpace to sell power to nearby data centres.
The Mitcheldean site is close to Bristol to the south and Gloucester to the east. In addition, there are opportunities for synergy with other Sirius sites such as Gloucester Barnwood and Gloucester Morelands.
Sirius bought Vantage Point Business Village with the proceeds of last November's £147 mln capital raise. The deal follows purchases since January of business and industrial parks in Cologne, Göppingen and Klipphausen for approximately €53.75 million in aggregate.
The Maintal sale has been five years in the making, Coombs said, and could lead to more transactions on other Sirius sites with the same buyer.
When the anchor tenant, which had been in long term occupation, decided it would be leaving, Sirius obtained planning for a change of use and provided the infrastructure to re-route into the site. The 37,830 m2 had been acquired by Sirius 16 years previously, for €17 mln, and the sale now equates to a net initial yield of 5.7% and an approximate 6% premium to last reported book value.
Coombs said: 'The Maintal disposal at a premium to book value allows us to capitalise on demand and continue to crystallise returns from our mature portfolio
'It also provides us further flexibility to recycle capital into new opportunities within our existing portfolio, as well as into our pipeline of acquisitions, alongside the proceeds of November’s £147 million (€165 million) equity raise.
'We have now committed to over £135 million (€155 million) of acquisitions since November and are continuing to actively seek future opportunities.'
