Keyhaven Capital has sold the final asset in EANOS Investments, a portfolio of 15 commercial office properties in Portugal. Keyhaven’s investment thesis was predicated on exploring opportunities arising from the increasing deleveraging activities of banks across the EU, which was triggered by the global financial crisis, focusing on undermanaged asset-backed opportunities within the real estate sector that faced significant disruption in the wake of the recession. Keyhaven was able to source the opportunity off-market, through exclusive discussions with a distressed seller due to a longstanding relationship with a local partner.
After a series of sales throughout the three year hold period, the final core asset was sold to a blue-chip European insurance company. Previous core assets were sold to leading institutional investors in a competitive auction process. Overall, the sales have generated a multiple of two times cost across the entire portfolio. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Commenting on the sale, Sasha van de Water, Managing Partner at Keyhaven said: “When we acquired EANOS Investments in March 2017 it suited our strategy as the portfolio was at a clear inflexion point for change. Throughout the relatively short holding period, we successfully navigated the complexity of a portfolio restructuring working closely with a local partner to transform and optimise the assets. The investment has been an example of our ability to identify attractive proprietary opportunities, highlighting the advantages of our secondaries strategy. We have also shown the important role ESG initiatives can play in driving value creation, in this instance through energy efficiency measures during refurbishment.”
