Starwood Property Trust has added three office buildings to its inaugural acquisition in Ireland, lifting the overall investment volume to €452 mln.

Starwood Property Trust has added three office buildings to its inaugural acquisition in Ireland, lifting the overall investment volume to €452 mln.

Morgan Stanley is to provide almost €300 mln to help finance the transaction.

The additional properties come on top of the nine Dublin office buildings and one residential property, known as the Molly Portfolio, which the US REIT agreed to acquire in March from US private equity firm Lone Star for €350 mln.

Starwood Property Trust said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the initial deal is conditional on it 'entering into definitive agreements to acquire three additional office properties also located in Dublin.'

The full portfolio of 13 assets provides 58,000 m2 of space located in Dublin’s central business district and will be acquired for €452 mln. At end-March the full portfolio was fully leased and the office properties were occupied primarily by multinational and government tenants with a weighted average lease term of 6.2 years.

Starwood Property Trust said it expected all parts of the transaction would be finalised in the second quarter of 2015.

The transaction was sourced by private equity firm Starwood Capital Group, an affiliate of Starwood Property Trust. Starwood Capital, according to the filing, expects to obtain a five-year, €294 mln unsecured term loan from Morgan Stanley to help finance the acquisition.

Starwood Capital Group has been invested in the greater Dublin market for over two years.

Background
Starwood REIT and Union account for half of €1b Irish investment