Cofinimmo has acquired, for cash, 100% of the shares in the company City Link SA/NV for an amount of 11.12 million. City‐Link SA owns a site on which a business park comprising 4 office blocks has been built, situated at Posthofbrug 10‐16 in 2600 Berchem (Antwerp), close to the Singel and Berchem railway station. The 4 buildings have office space totalling 27,108 m² and 587 parking places.
 ))
The value of the business park comes to 63.08 million.
In April 2007 Cofinimmo gave a commitment to acquire the company City‐Link SA/NV after acceptance of the works. According to this agreement, the value of the business park comes to 63.08 million. The difference between this value and the price paid for the shares (11.12 million) represents the amount of City‐Link's debt taken over by Cofinimmo. As a consequence of the downward trend in property market valuation, the acquisition value is 4.92% higher than the most recent investment value determined by the expert on 15-12-2009. The gross initial rental yield for the building, fully let, is estimated at 6.32%.
In spite of the particularly tough rental conditions, Cofinimmo is pleased to announce that the property has already been let as to 86% to tenants of good standing, such as Randstad Tempo Team, Mercator and Arcadis Gedas, for average lease terms of over 9 years. The satisfactory outcome of this project can be attributed to the expertise of the company's commercial team, its policy of cooperating closely with the real estate brokers agents as well as the calibre of the building. The building in fact enjoys a highly visible and excellent location, and also offers a particularly good energy performance. Whereas the EPB1 index required by the regional authorities stands at 100, the City Link building achieves a rating of only 74, putting it at the top of the league table for buildings with a low environmental impact in the Antwerp region. An application for the BREEAM2 certificate will be submitted shortly.
Concerned by its environmental footprint and by the importance of sustainable building, Cofinimmo outperforms the legal requirements and provides additional and innovative solutions to minimize environmental impacts for the development projects it acquires. The 3 office development projects either acquired in 2009 (West‐End, City Link) or in the process of acquisition (Avenue Building in Antwerp in 2010) all have an EPB‐index less than or equal to 75, well below the required rating (100).
Source: Cofinimmo
