A European property fund managed by Standard Life's Investments has completed the sale of Torre Zen, an office building in the Parque das Nacoes area of Lisbon for an undisclosed amount.
A European property fund managed by Standard Life's Investments has completed the sale of Torre Zen, an office building in the Parque das Nacoes area of Lisbon for an undisclosed amount.
Torre Zen is an 11,400 m2 office building that was acquired by the European Property Growth Fund in 2003. It has 13 floors of offices plus three retail units on the ground floor. Current tenants include Danone, Upstar Communications, UHU, TNT and A Padaria Portuguesa.
The disposal is part of a strategic rebalancing of the fund’s portfolio, and the proceeds will be reinvested in other European real estate markets where 'the economic recovery is increasing occupier demand and rents', Standard Life Investments said.
'This meets our current strategy to dispose of assets in non-core markets in order to invest in prime assets within recovery markets, such as The Netherlands, Spain and Ireland, where we can deliver strong returns for investors,' commented fund manager Veronica Gallo-Alvarez.
Standard Life aims to generate €150 mln of fresh capital in the latest round of equity raising for its €750 mln semi-open ended fund, European Property Growth Fund.
‘We are in the early stages of this equity raising which should take about a year or so to close,’ Gallo-Alvarez recently told PropertyEU.
The vehicle, launched in 2001, is currently focused on two types of investment strategies, she added. 'We are targeting the core markets on the one hand, e.g. Germany and France, while on the other we are looking at more cyclical markets like Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands.’
The vehicle targets leveraged returns of between 8 and 10% on a five-year basis.
