SEB ImmoInvest acquires Lotus office complex in Rotterdam (DE/NL)

In Alexanderplein, the established Rotterdam office location, SEB Immobilien-Investment GmbH acquired four buildings in Lotus office complex which is to be built. The buildings are to be constructed in two phases, to the beginning and end of 2007, with a total rental area of some 33,800 square metres and 756 parking spaces. The project developer and seller is the Dutch company OVG. When they are complete, the Lotus buildings will be transferred into the portfolio of the open-ended real es-tate fund SEB ImmoInvest.

Three of the four buildings have already been entirely leased for ten years, without an early termination option to Royal Haskon-ing (engineering company), ABB and CM Logica (a Dutch soft-ware company). All lease contracts include annual lease price indexing. The fourth and smallest building is still being mar-keted. With its completion at the end of 2007, OVG, the project developer, assumes a five-year leasing guarantee. SEB Immo-bilien-Investment GmbH quantifies total investments for the project development portfolio at approximately EUR 110 million. To optimise the return, a loan is to be taken up on 50 percent of the investment volume. To expand the Lotus office ensemble, SEB Immobilien-Investment GmbH has secured an option on two further buildings.

Currently the fund is invested in eight properties in the Nether-lands with 3.2 percent of the market value volume – in Alkmaar, Den Haag and Amstelveen as well as Schiphol-Rijk near Am-sterdam. Only in January 2005 did the fund give up the Capelle aan den Ijssel / Rotterdam location with the sale of the Rivium-Quadrant property. The investment in the Lotus Portfolio is a return driven re-entry into this sub-market which will contribute to the positive development of fund income.

The Alexanderplein sub-market is one of the classic locations for office property in Rotterdam. Many large international com-panies are sited close to the Lotus development. These include Ernst & Young, Coca Cola and Procter & Gamble. Overall Al-exanderplein covers 3.7 million square metres of office space. The high-speed railway line Amsterdam/Schiphol - Rotterdam – Brussels, which is to be completed by 2007, will further in-crease the attraction for international investors and companies. Over the next few years, the office property market promises to be one of the most attractive in Europe for investors.

Active portfolio expansion to optimise returns
To improve its portfolio, SEB Immobilien-Investment GmbH intends to conclude further purchase agreements over the next few days. For the open-ended real estate fund SEB ImmoInvest, total investments of some EUR 115 million are scheduled in the Netherlands and France. The company is thus rigorously pursu-ing an active income-oriented optimisation of the portfolio. Cur-rently the portfolio is made up of 116 properties at over 60 loca-tions in 11 countries.

Source: SEB Immoinvest

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