Top 5 deals Week 49

Top 5 deals

1. Derek Quinlan, Propinvest complete EUR 1.4 bn Citigroup deal

2. CA Immobilien acquires Vivico RE for EUR 1bn

3. FDL completes deals worth EUR 500 mln

4. Irish investor buys into London's Victoria Street

5. Fabege spends EUR 244m to expand Stockholm portfolio

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1)

Derek Quinlan, Propinvest complete EUR 1.4 bn Citigroup deal
Date published: 3 December 2007
Irish investor Derek Quinlan and Propinvest, a London-based private investment company, have completed the acquisition of the European headquarters of Citigroup Bank in London from Royal Bank of Scotland for £1 bn (about EUR 1.4 bn). The trophy asset will be leased back to Citigroup for 25 years.

The sale and leaseback of the 42-storey office skyscraper, comprising 114,00 m² of space, at Canary Wharf was the second-largest single-property transaction ever seen in the UK in July and there had been some speculation recently that the turmoil in the financial markets would derail the funding of the deal.

Quinlan is the founder and chairman of Ireland's Quinlan Private, but took part in the 50-50 joint venture with Propinvest in a personal capacity. Quinlan Private manages assets in excess of EUR 11.5 bn and has been involved in two other mega property deals this year. In April, the company joined up with Delek Global Real Estate and other Israeli partners to buy 47 Marriott Hotels in the UK for EUR 1.6 bn. A few months later the Irish group pulled off the EUR 1.16 bn takeover of the Jurys Inns hotel group.

Since then it has been reported that Quinlan Private was seeking to raise EUR 400 mln from private investors for the Jurys Inn deal. Meanwhile Delek's EUR 2 bn bid for the real estate of Swiss retail chain Jelmoli collapsed after Jelmoli refused to lower the asking price.

Another Irish property investor, D2 Private, reportedly defied the credit crunch to acquire an office building in London's West End at the end of November for EUR 253 mln. Media sources said the amount paid was 10% below the price originally sought by the owners, Legal & General's Life and Linked Life funds. Located about 200 metres from the Houses of Parliament, the building is the headquarters for two government departments.

D2 Private is owned by owned by Irish developer David Arnold and the managing director is Deirdre Foley, a former executive at Quinlan Private.

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2)

CA Immobilien acquires Vivico RE for EUR 1bn
Date published: 5 December 2007
Austria's CA Immobilien announced on Wednesday that it has bought the German project development company Vivico Real Estate from the German government for EUR 1.03 bn. The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval from the Austrian competition authority.

CA Immobilien beat competition from Carlyle and Colony, both private equity firms, to acquire the Vivico. German real estate company IVG Immobilien had also initially been interested in buying Vivico, but dropped its bid at a later stage.

Founded in 2001, Vivico develops mostly commercial projects on out-of-use railway properties. It is headquartered in Frankfurt-Main and has offices in Munich, Berlin, and Cologne. The company manages about 150 commercial real estate properties and project developments.

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3)

FDL completes deals worth EUR 500 mln
Date published: 3 December 2007
Fonciere Developpement Logements (FDL) said that it has completed several previously announced property transactions in France and Germany for a total investment volume of EUR 500 mln. Last July, the company said it was buying 1,086 residential units in the Paris region for about EUR 398 mln, reflecting a yield of 4.5%. The properties generate a rent of EUR 18 mln per annum.

In Germany, FDL acquired 73% of Gewo, a real estate company that owns 2,270 residential units in the Ruhr region. The acquisition price comes to EUR 93 mln. Some 35% of the total investment volume is being financed through own equity via a capital increase and a loan of EUR 272 mln. Following these transactions, FDL said that its portfolio is worth about EUR 3.7 bn, of which EUR 1 bn is located in France.

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4)

Irish investor buys into London's Victoria Street
Date published: 3 December 2007
Irish investment company D2 Private is reportedly buying a government-occupied block in London's West End for £180 mln (EUR 254 mln). In September Legal & General's Life and Linked Life funds put the 31,600 m² block up for sale for £200 mln, but the ongoing credit crunch forced them to accept a 10% cut in the transaction price.

The entire building is let to the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory reform and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills for 25 years with upward-only rent reviews in 2011 and 2016. The property generates rental income of £9 mln per annum. At a price of £180 mln, the deal would reflect a yield of 4.75%. Jones Lang LaSalle acts for L&G while D2 is being advised by Knight Frank.

Dublin-based property investor D2 Private has been an active buyer in London's office market in recent years. The company is owned by Irish developer David Arnold and the managing director is Deirdre Foley, a former executive at Quinlan Private.

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5)

Fabege spends EUR 244m to expand Stockholm portfolio
Date published: 4 December 2007
Swedish property company Fabege is buying two office buildings in central Stockholm from peer Niam for a total SEK 2 bn (EUR 212 mln). The first property, Trängkåren 7, comprises around 56,000 m² of lettable space, of which 47,000 m² is office space. The second property, Grönlandet Södra 13, comprises around 8,000 m² of lettable space. The office property is entirely let to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. In another deal, Fabege sold the land property Marievik 31 to JM for SEK 295 mln.

'These deals are in line with our business model of optimising our total return - the yield and the increase in value - and focusing on a number of priority sub-markets. The properties we are acquiring will fit well into our portfolio in Stockholm's inner city,' Fabege's CEO Christian Hermelin said.

Stockholm-based Niam bought the properties as part of a portfolio in October last year from the Norwegian company Acta Kapitalförsäkring.