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Union Investment today announced the sale of the London Copyright Building to Ares Real Estate Funds ("Ares"), a subsidiary of Ares Management Corporation, a leading global alternative investment manager. The signing has already taken place and the transaction is expected to close in March. Financial details were not disclosed.
This transaction is evidence of the increasing demand for European office properties. Union Investment held the property in its open-ended retail real estate fund UniImmo: Europa for almost ten years and has now sold it at book value. The building, which is almost 100 per cent let, comprises around 10,000 square metres of office and retail space on eight floors and benefits from its central location in Fitzrovia, a sought-after office submarket in the West End. With a total of three tube stations in close proximity, the BREEAM Excellent-certified Coypright Building benefits from good transport links to Greater London and beyond.
Following the sale of the Finsbury Circus House office property to an Australian joint venture, the sale of the Coypright Building is Union Investment's second successful exit in London within the last seven months.
"Institutional and private capital is increasingly seeking entry into Central London. This is a good time to create more room for manoeuvre for our European real estate funds through strategic sales," said Jacob Thompson, Senior Investment Manager UK & Ireland at Union Investment.
"We acquired the Copyright Building immediately after its completion in 2017 with a long-term lease that has provided our private investors with strong and stable cash flow for nearly a decade. In view of the shortening remaining term of the leases, the timing for the sale is well chosen. We intend to reinvest the capital available from the recent sales and are actively seeking new attractive investment opportunities in London, in particular for our UniImmo: Germany fund," said Adam Irányi, Head of Investment Management Global at Union Investment.
"We believe the acquisition of the Copyright Building is in line with our thesis, which is to focus on high-quality, well-located properties that benefit from the strong rental growth we are seeing in many sub-markets in central London," said Wilson Lamont, partner and co-head of European Real Estate at Ares.
Union Investment was advised on the transaction by Savills and Knight Frank.
