Valesco’s final closure of its €460 mln Sequana Tower acquisition tops the deal table, but refinancing is a bigger story.
Valesco said its acquisition of the 26-floor Paris tower, the first for its new fund, was the largest office deal of the year so far in Continental Europe and the biggest in France since 2021. Tenant and vendor Accor’s valuation of the building pre-Covid was €500 mln+.
The Paris deal follows Deka’s sale this month for €217 mln of De Resident office tower in The Hague, but such large transactions remain few and far between. It took nine months to close Sequana, with Valesco and Accor first entering exclusive negotiations last September.
It’s notable that Valesco’s acquisition was a sale-and-leaseback and a building with strong ESG credentials. The top trio of deals this week are all sale-and-leasebacks as professional investors remain reluctant to sell.
This time last year, five significant shopping centres traded. That sector has also been quiet in 2023, but this week a significant stake in the second mega mall to come to market in June 2023 went up for sale.
Sovereign wealth fund ADIA is reported to have appointed JLL to test the market for its majority stake in the 1.6 million ft2 Liverpool One, following Goldman Sach’s decision to try to sell Blanchardstown, Ireland’s biggest shopping centre, earlier this month.
With most investors still reluctant to sell, however, activity in European private debt markets remains chiefly refinancing plus some development loans, with the development mainly for residential and logistics.
Among those refinancing this week are Reits Colonial, Impact Healthcare and Life Science Reit.
Colonial’s €835 mln of debt for French subsidiary SFL involved pulling together 10 banks and extends the maturity of its credit lines. Impact Healthcare renegotiated its revolving credit facilities with its existing banks and persuaded them to accept lower interest cover covenants, cut from 250% to 175-200%.
We also track the other new assets on the market, which include two London offices, plus three funds raising capital.
Click here to access all the data.
The data sheet will be taking a summer break. It will return in its usual Friday slot on 25 August.
