Sirius Real Estate has acquired a business park in Bochum in Germany’s Ruhr region for €25.7 mln, equating to an EPRA net initial yield of 8.9%.
The vendor is a fund managed by Munich-based DOBA-Grund Beteiligungs, part of developer Doblinger Group. The acquisition was inked in November 2018 and funded through a combination of capital raised in March 2018 and part of a €56 mln debt facility from pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank.
The business park comprises around 56,000 m2 of mixed-use lettable space of which 65% is warehouse, 29% is office and 6% is other space. The site is 95%-occupied and let to 31 tenants including Pilkington, a subsidiary of the Japan-based NSG Group and GfR, a call centre operator that is part of Thomas Cook Group.
Sirius said the site was acquired at a high yield because Pilkington will be vacating the 26,600 m2 that it occupies when the lease expires at the end of May.
At the same time, Sirius has signed a new lease commencing on 1 June 2019 for 12,600 m2 of the space being vacated, at a higher rent per m2 and with fixed annual uplifts. The new lease has been taken by the Eickhoff Group, a family-owned business which mainly manufactures machinery and gearing technology for the mining and wind turbine industries.
Andrew Coombs, CEO of Sirius Real Estate, said: ‘This acquisition is our first foothold in the important Ruhr area which is one the major industrial regions of Germany. With relatively low site density, a flexible multi-tenant structure, the opportunity to replace the exiting major tenant and stabilise the rent roll in an area where take up is robust and rents are growing, this site is an exciting value-add opportunity for Sirius.’
He added: ‘We have already generated strong interest in this park and believe re-letting of the balance of the Pilkington space will be achieved ahead of business plan.’
