The Carlyle Group completes the sale of Alban Gate for £300 million (UK)

Global alternative asset manager, The Carlyle Group announces that it has completed the sale of the Alban Gate office building in the City of London, to Blackstone for £300 million (approx. €378 million). The price reflects a yield of 6%.
Alban Gate is located on London Wall in the heart of the City, comprising 382,000 ft² (35,489 m²) of office space over 22 floors. Since Carlyle acquired the property it has been fully let to JP Morgan, which undertook an extensive refurbishment and earlier this year sub-let much of the space to law firm Nabarros.
This is the fourth successful exit Carlyle has made from the portfolio of six landmark central London properties that were formerly part of the White Tower 2006-3 plc CMBS, which it acquired in July 2010 for £671 million.
Carlyle will continue to hold the two remaining assets in the portfolio, the Sampson House data centre and Ludgate House office, which are located immediately south of Blackfriars Bridge, opposite the City of London, on one of the most prime riverside sites in central London. Carlyle acquired the White Tower portfolio on behalf of its third pan-European real estate fund, Carlyle European Real Estate Partners III.
Commenting on the disposal, Mark Harris, Managing Director at The Carlyle Group, said: “The sale of Alban Gate represents another excellent outcome for investors, with the strength of the current market allowing us to achieve a good price on an asset that we acquired in a portfolio deal at an opportune time in the market cycle. The high level of demand for this type of asset in today’s market, combined with the recently completed asset management work undertaken by the property’s tenant, provided an excellent opportunity to realise value on behalf of our investors. This is the fourth successful exit we have made from the White Tower transaction and we are now progressing our ambitious plans for the redevelopment of the two remaining properties from the portfolio, Sampson House and Ludgate House on the South Bank of the Thames.”
Source: Carlyle