1. IVG buys Clearstream HQ in Luxembourg for EUR 350m
2. NEPR sells in Sweden to help fund Russian acquisitions
3. Big Yellow and Pramerica funds in EUR 208m joint venture
4. Patrizia spends EUR 200m on German real estate
5. Signa acquires Bawag portfolio for EUR 200m
Scroll down for more details on the deals.
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1.
IVG buys Clearstream HQ in Luxembourg for EUR 350m
Date published: 29 November 2007
German property company IVG Immobilien is buying the Luxembourg headquarters of Clearstream International, Deutsche Boerse Group's securities settlement and custody provider, for EUR 350 mln. The complex in the Kirchberg area of Luxembourg City comprises four buildings, and Clearstream is to lease back the two it is using. Deutsche Boerse, the German stock exchange group, rents all its other office space.
'The sale-and-leaseback arrangement will see Deutsche Boerse Group apply this concept to the Clearstream headquarters in Luxembourg too, and will allow the company to benefit, at the same time, from the very positive current market environment for commercial real estate in Luxembourg,' Deutsche Boerse said in a statement.
The sale price is considerably higher than the book value of around EUR 230 mln. Deutsche Boerse will receive the book profit in 2008 via dividend payments from Clearstream. The transaction requires approval by the supervisory board of Deutsche Boerse but the deal is expected to close before the end of this year.
The lease agreement between Clearstream and the related real estate companies who own the buildings has a 10-year term from the conclusion date of the transaction, with two five-year extension options each for Clearstream.
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2.
NEPR sells in Sweden to help fund Russian acquisitions
Date published: 27 November 2007
Northern European Properties (NEPR) has reached a preliminary agreement to sell a portfolio of 14 properties in Sweden to Stockholm-based real estate company Kungsleden for EUR 322 mln. NEPR said the proceeds will be used to partially fund four acquisitions carried out in Russia last June. The transaction price reflected a yield of about 7.2%.
NEPR said it will have to 'initially inject significantly more equity' than previously anticipated in the acquisitions of two office properties, a hotel property and a retail DIY store in St Petersburg 'in the light of current debt market conditions'. But NEPR said it will strive to refinance the assets when conditions in the debt markets have improved.
The board said it will also consider a share buy-back because of the current discount of the company's share price to its reported net asset value if and when additional sales are carried out and/or NEPR is able to refinance its portfolio.
The 445,000 m2 portfolio sold to Kungsleden consists of industrial, logistics and office properties mainly located in central and southern Sweden. The principal tenants are ABB Fastighet and Frigoscandia. The transaction is expected to complete within two weeks. Property adviser Catella acted for NEPR. In a separate deal, NEPR sold another property in Sweden to Dios & Kuylenstierna for about EUR 40 mln. NEPR said the gross rental income for the sold properties was approximately EUR 29.4 mln.
NEPR is listed on London's junior AIM market and focuses on the real estate sector in the Nordic and Baltic regions as well as Russia. Its property portfolio comprised 93 assets with total floor space of 1.9 million m2 at end-June this year. Property adviser Debenham Tie Leung valued the portfolio at the time at EUR 1.9 bn.
NEPR announced in June that it had acquired two office properties, a hotel and a retail DIY store in St Petersburg and two shopping centres in Kaliningrad and Murmansk for a total of EUR 231mln. At the same time, the company disposed of 11 properties in Sweden and Finland for a total consideration of EUR 232.7 mln.
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3.
Big Yellow and Pramerica funds in EUR 208m joint venture
Date published: 26 November 2007
UK self-storage group Big Yellow has teamed up in a £150 mln (EUR 208 mln) partnership with funds managed by Pramerica Real Estate Investors to develop up to 25 stores in the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland.
Big Yellow and Pramerica are investing up to £25 mln and £50 mln respectively into the partnership, of which £4.5 mln and £9 mln respectively, will be invested on 30 November. All further investments into the partnership by Big Yellow and Pramerica will be in the ratio of one third and two thirds respectively. The partnership has also secured a five-year non-recourse loan of £75 mln from Royal Bank of Scotland to provide investment and
development funding.
Commenting on the partnership with Pramerica, Big Yellow's CEO James Gibson said: 'Joining forces with this prestigious institution will allow us to continue to expand with confidence into the northern part of the UK, whilst at the same time improving the financial performance of the group. Further it will release funds for deployment into the South of England where we expect to see more opportunities in a less competitive property market.'
Big Yellow now operates 45 stores, 44 in London and the South, and one in Leeds, with a further 27 stores in development. The portfolio provides a total of 418,000 m2 of flexible storage space.
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4.
Patrizia spends EUR 200m on German real estate
Date published: 28 November 2007
Listed property company Patrizia has acquired residential and commercial properties in Germany for EUR 200 mln on behalf of its Patroffice co-investment joint venture with the Dutch pension fund ABP and the real estate unit of Denmark's ATP pension company.
In the first of two transactions, Patroffice purchased a 110,000 m2 portfolio of 32 commercial properties in 25 German cities from a special real estate fund for institutional investors run by RREEF Spezial Invest.
The second purchase was of four commercial properties in Munich, Frankfurt and Wetzlar, as well as around 11,000 m2 of residential space in Kaiserslautern.
Patroffice has a total investment volume of EUR 700 mln that will be invested predominantly in German commercial real estate. Patrizia has primary responsibility for the purchase of commercial real estate for Patroffice and is in charge of asset management.
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5.
Signa acquires Bawag portfolio for EUR 200m
Date published: 30 November 2007
Tyrolean real estate investor Rene Banko's Signa has bought a portfolio of 16 office buildings from Austrian bank Bawag PSK. Although the parties declined to comment on the financial details, newspaper Die Press said the portfolio, valued at EUR 450 mln, was sold for just EUR 200 mln as the bank was under pressure to raise funds quickly.
The decision to offload the offices of the Austrian trade union federation in Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck followed Bawag's agreement earlier this year to pay back about $683 mln to creditors after a damaging financial scandal connected to the collapse of a New York-based financial services group. Battered by the scandal, Bawag, Austria's fifth-largest bank, reported losses of EUR 1.8 bn in 2006. This year the bank was sold to a consortium headed by US investor Cerberus Capital Management for EUR 3.2 bn.
Separately, Singna's Dusseldoft office announced last week that it had acquired the Hoto business tower in the Croatian city of Zagreb for EUR 72 mln. The building is let to the Croatian subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, Hrvatski until 2019. Landesbank Hessen-Thuingen provided EUR 50 mln in financing for the transaction.