Le mie ricette per la real estate communitySEB Asset Management has sold the EuroCentre office property in Lille on behalf of its open-ended real estate fund, SEB ImmoInvest to an institutional investor from France. The selling price achieved is around 22 per cent higher than the purchase price and around 13 per cent above the current market value.
The Fund management company had purchased the EuroCentre building as a development project for approximately EUR 20.6 million and added it to the Fund portfolio on its completion in 2006.
The modern multi-tenant office property is located in the Euralille office district in the city of Lille, the third most important financial centre in France. A new lease was signed in the summer for 600 m2 of office space on the ground floor. This latest leasing success means that the nine-storey building with over 7,470 m2 of space is fully let. Once fully let, the building met the prerequisite for marketing it successfully.
In addition, the transaction took place at a time when demand for prime properties in established regional centres is clearly increasing. Barbara Knoflach, CEO of SEB Asset Management AG, said, “The successful sale demonstrates both the quality of the investment and that the asset management approach was right.”
The purchase price for the property in Lille, France, has already been paid and ownership transferred, and the Fund management is holding promising negotiations on further property sales with potential investors.
Approximately EUR 128 million, or EUR 1.10 per unit, is to be paid out to investors in the SEB ImmoInvest Fund in a fourth return of capital on 2 January 2014. This represents a distribution of around three per cent of the current Fund assets of EUR 4.2 billion.
This payment brings the amount paid out to investors in the first 20 months since the Fund’s dissolution was announced in May 2012 to EUR 15.75 per unit certificate. This corresponds to a total of EUR 1.8 billion, or around 31 per cent of Fund assets.The distributions are made at half-yearly intervals and will automatically be credited to investors’ accounts at their securities custodians.
Source : Company