The Coeur Défense Towers in La Defense, the biggest office complex in Europe with 190,000 m² of leasable space has reportedly been put up for sale by Hold.
According to French newspaper Le figaro, Hold, who owns the complex and was created by General electrics’ pension fund and bankrupt bank Lehman Brothers, has hired two investment banks to help it sell the five towers. Morgan Stanley will probably be involved in the transaction, as well as Rothschild or BNP Paribas.
The Coeur Defense office complex was acquired in 2007 by Hold for €2.1 billion from Goldman-Sachs Whitehall Funds and Unibail-Rodamco.
The complex is 85% leased by strong tenants such as AXA, HSBC and Allianz, but experts do not expect the sale to match the price of its pre-crisis acquisition, reportedly expecting a price closer to €1.1 billion instead.
Even with this price tag the sale of the Coeur Towers will most likely be the biggest property deal in France in a long time. In 2012 the record was set when Qatari investors bought the Virgin Building on the Champs-Élysées for €500 million.
Hold is forced to put the Coeur Towers back on the market in order to pay back the €1.6 billion loan it took to acquire the complex before July 2014.
Source: Le Figaro
