Knight Frank Investment Management (KFIM), acting on behalf of KB Securities and KB Asset Management, has completed the acquisition of the company Galaxy Properties, owning as main asset the North Galaxy Towers, Brussels from ATP Real Estate. The deal is estimated to be over €600 mln.
Designed by architectural firm Art & Build and completing in 2004, North Galaxy Towers provides a dominant office complex with over 122,000 m2 across 28 floors. The buildings have always been occupied by the Belgium government affording the occupiers highly efficient connectivity being adjacent to a major transport hub, Brussels North Station.
The North Galaxy office complex is located on a rectangular island site in a prime office area in the North District of Brussels. The offices are fully occupied by the Ministry of Finance who reportedly plan on consolidating other offices into the building when it will ultimately provide the central location for Belgium’s Ministry of Finance.
ATP Real Estate bought the office in 2014 in a 90:10 joint venture with AXA Belgium for €475 mln.
KB Securities has previous experience in the Brussels office market, having been involved in one of the other largest transactions ever in Brussels, The Finance Tower, which trade in 2020 for €1.2 bn.
David Johnson, partner at KFIM said: ‘North Galaxy Towers is the occupational home of the Ministry of Finance, a core office building in an evolving submarket of Brussels with fantastic connectivity via the North Station. Covid has been a challenging period for many international investors, including our Korean clients, and we are delighted to have identified and delivered KB Securities with a building that provides such a strong business case, benefiting from not only a strong stable income return but also annual rental indexation.’
He added: ‘This is KFIM’s seventeenth acquisition on behalf of South Korean capital with a total €2 bn having been invested to date on behalf of a variety of long-standing Korean clients. We continue to be active in a variety of markets across both the UK and Continental Europe.’
Kevin Aitchison CEO at KFIM said: ‘Five years ago we made a strategic decision to focus on identifying and partnering with Korean institutional investors. Since then, this part of the KFIM business has gone from strength to strength. Having now completed on the sales of a couple of our initial Korean acquisitions, I am delighted that we have been able to deliver the investment
performance mandated by our Clients.’
Allen & Overy and C&W represented the buyer and Eastdil, CBRE and Loyens & Loeff represented the seller.
