Aareal Italy Fund, a closed-end fund for institutional investors, has bought the Rome headquarters of Datamat for â¬22 million. The listed Italian software group will continue to occupy the building under a new lease. The sale and leaseback transaction completes the fundâs ownership
of the ´Via Laurentina 760´ office complex of which this building forms a part.
Datamat sees the sale and leaseback as an opportunity to redeploy capital to its core business. The company is an existing tenant of the adjoining properties already owned by the Aareal Italy Fund. Complete control of the property will allow the asset management group of Aareal Bank AG, responsible for this fund, to enhance the assetâs value through merging the propertyâs separate titles.
Ronald ten Bokum, Managing Director of Aareal Property Services, a unit of Aareal Asset Management, commented, âThe Italian investment market is increasingly competitive. Usually, deals like this are successful only with a long standing market presence. We have worked well with Datamat for a number of years.â
Source: Aareal Bank