Mayfair Capital Investment Management - which became the UK arm of Swiss Life Asset Managers in late 2016 - has acquired two regional offices on behalf of a new fund.
London-based Mayfair invested a total of £72.3m (€82 mln) in Leeds and Oxfordshire for the new €300m fund. The core and core/plus fund was established in October 2017 to focus on large cities and regional centres in the UK, France, the Benelux, Germany, Austria, Southern Europe and the Nordics.
6 Queen Street
In Leeds, Mayfair completed the off-market acquisition of 6 Queen Street from Rockspring Property Investment Managers, acting on behalf of Rockspring Hanover Property Unit Trust. The investment volume came to £37.2 mln.
Rockspring said it acquired the site in 2014 and developed 6 Queen Street on a speculative basis. The building, which was completed in July 2016, comprises 70,940 square foot (6,590 m2) of office space spread over six floors with basement car parking for 47 vehicles. It is located in the heart of Leeds' business district and has been awarded BREEAM 'Excellent' and EPC A rating.
Last year, Rockspring completed the largest private sector office letting deal of the year in Leeds when FTSE 100 luxury fashion label Burberry took 4,273 m2 over four floors at 6 Queens Street on a 10-year lease.
Mischa Davis, fund manager for Hanover at Rockspring, commented: 'We acquired the site and speculatively developed 6 Queen Street at a time when the economy supported high levels of concentrated vacancy risk and when the supply of Grade A office space in Leeds was at historically low levels. In line with our strategy to reduce risk in the portfolio, now is the perfect opportunity for us to crystallise profits and reduce the fund’s overall exposure to vacancy. 6 Queen Street has delivered a total return of approximately 20% per annum over the past three years and has contributed to the Trusts outperformance.'
Oxfordshire
Mayfair paid €39.6 mln in an off-market transaction for an office property at Oxford Business Park in Oxfordshire. The property is let to British Gas for another 11 years.
Phil Sturdy, investment director at Mayfair Capital, said, 'With just under 500,000 sq ft of office take-up in Oxfordshire during 2017, Oxfordshire has also had a record-breaking year. Science and technology firms continue to locate in and around Oxford to capitalise on the skilled workforce that Oxford University produces. This is a substantial, well-let, reversionary office investment which, like the Leeds purchase, was bought off-market.'
Also see, Swiss Life Asset Managers acquires Mayfair Capital
