Schroder Real Estate is trading assets for its West End of London Property Unit Trust (WELPUT) as part of a plan to diversify into the London City market.
The fund is selling 16-17 Connaught Place in London’s West End to the GWM Group for £110m (€155m) while buying 7 Bishopsgate in the City for £48.9m from TH Real Estate.
Nick Montgomery, head of UK investment at Schroder Real Estate, said: “The disposal of Connaught and the immediate redeployment of proceeds into the City is in line with WELPUT’s strategy following the fund’s modernisation in 2014.”
Schroders bought the first City asset for WELPUT in May having last year extended its investment remit beyond London’s West End as a reaction to changing occupier demands.
The Jersey-domiciled fund converted to an open-ended structure in October 2014, and in March of this year raised £162m from a single institutional investor via the secondary market.
GWM said it bought 16-17 Connaught Place for a £500m core and core-plus strategy aimed at major cities.
The 81,859 sqft property, let to a number of tenants including Hunter Boot, was owned by WELPUT since 2005.
Ker Gilchrist, head of investment at Quintain, property adviser to WELPUT, said: “Having completed our business plan, we decided to take the opportunity to offer the asset to the market and capitalise on the strong investor interest in well-established West End buildings.”
The Bishopsgate building was sold by TH Real Estate’s Central London Office Fund, which had owned the 56,020 sqft asset since 2011.
Peter Neal, senior portfolio manager at TH Real Estate, said the sale crystalised an “attractive return over the period of ownership” and that sale proceeds will be returned to investors.
