Hamburg-based fund manager Union Investment Real Estate is planning new acquisitions in the French market during 2012 and early 2013 to re-invest the proceeds from EUR 450 mln in net sales there over 2011.
Hamburg-based fund manager Union Investment Real Estate is planning new acquisitions in the French market during 2012 and early 2013 to re-invest the proceeds from EUR 450 mln in net sales there over 2011.
The latest sale to be announced was the Aile Sud office building in Boulogne-Billancourt commune of Paris to French television channel TF1. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed but German publication Thomas Daily estimated the property's most recent valuation at EUR 57 mln.
TF1 is the largest private television channel in France and is the tenant of the 7,315 m2 building located in 54, rue de la Voie Lactée. SJ Berwin and Gide advised Union Investment on the sale to TF1.
Union Investment acquired Aile Sud in 1999 for its open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Europa.
Karl-Joseph Hermanns-Engel, member of the Management Board of Union Investment Real Estate, said the property generated a steady cash flow for the fund during the 12-year holding period.
'The deal is another example of our active asset management approach in France targeted on the sale of properties that had been acquired in the first investment phase between 1999 and 2004 and no longer apply to our fund strategy,' he said.
Besides Aile Sud, Union Investment sold Les Renardières office building in Courbevoie, the Marriott Champs-Elysées and the Espace Gaymard office building in Marseille during 2011, generating EUR 450 mln in net sales. 'We are optimistic about reinvesting the proceeds of the sales in Paris and the French regional markets during the next 12 to 15 months,' Hermanns-Engel added.
Click on the link below to read: Union acquires 'Airport Gardens' in Düsseldorf
