Hamburg-based Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH (Warburg-HIH Invest) has sold the office scheme Friary Court in London to BCDH Capital Holding FC S.à.r.l. on behalf of the state-owned Beijing Capital Development Holding Group Ltd.. The office scheme belonged to a closed-end public fund and was sold for £65.5m (€89.9m).
HIH Global Invest (now Warburg-HIH Invest) acquired the asset, which was built in the 1980s, after extensive refurbishment in the year 2009 including a long lease term based on a yield of about net 7%. The office scheme is located in the insurance district (EC 3) adjoining the east of the City of London near the insurance market of Lloyd's of London. The property, occupied by Holman Fenwick Willan LLP on a lease ending in 2023, comes with excellent public transportation links, and benefits from its proximity to numerous tourist sites such as the Tower of London and The Gherkin.
“Having acquired the property during a slow market cycle at the peak of the financial crisis, we now took advantage of the sellers’ market and sold the asset to a price exceeding about 50% the purchasing price we paid. We are very happy that the appreciation the British pound realised against the euro since the property’s acquisition until now increases our investors’ success even more,” said Andreas Schultz, managing director of Warburg-HIH Invest and in charge of the transaction management international division. “Inversely, the buyer may count on long-term security of income from the property because of the still long remaining lease term and the anticipated appreciation of the surrounding area due to several project developments.”
On the seller side, the transaction was facilitated by Travers Smith, with CBRE and Bilfinger GVA advising the seller. Legal counsel to the buyer was provided by Allen & Overy, while Cushman & Wakefield acted as advisers to the buyers.
