2024-01-15 9:30 CET, Benelux | Press release
The first transaction in the Benelux market stemming from Catella’s acquisition of a majority stake in France’s EUR 1.4 billion AUM Aquila Group last year, has been closed with a ‘sale and leaseback’ deal for an office/industrial asset in Zoetermeer, near The Hague, by the French SCPI real estate fund UPÊKA. The investment was completed at a net initial yield of 7.8% on a seven-year lease.
Catella Investment Management Benelux (CIMB) acted as an advisor on the transaction between the seller Midland and the French fund. Midland is an affiliate of audiovisual consultancy company NFGD Zoetermeer BV, which has occupied the 2,400 sqm property since the late 1990s. UPÊKA is managed by Axipit Real Estate Partners, the real estate fund management company of The Aquila Group.
Ralph Willems, Senior Acquisition Manager at CIMB, said: “The Zoetermeer transaction was executed in a very short timeframe, particularly for a new market entry by an investment fund – from exclusivity at the end of November to a closing just before year end. We’re already seeing positive synergies emerging from the extension of Catella’s pan-European platform with the integration of The Aquila Group, following the UPÊKA fund’s first investments outside France in Spain and now in the Benelux. CIMB is actively looking for more commercial real estate investment opportunities in all three Benelux markets for UPÊKA as well as Catella’s French platform. These investments will typically be in offices, retail and/or (semi)industrial/logistic assets at ticket sizes in the EUR 1.5 million to EUR 15 million range and at higher ‘value-add’ yields compared with the typical EUR 20 million-plus transactions we’ve previously completed in the Benelux for Catella’s German institutional funds with their core to core-plus profiles.”
Prime Realty and AKD, tax and legal, together with PVM as technical consultants, also advised UPÊKA on the Zoetemeer transaction. Spring Real Estate and KDLP acted for the seller.
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
Wouter Bouma
Bellier Communication
wouter.bouma@bellierfinancial.com
Ralph Willems MRICS
Catella Investment Management Benelux
+316 28945516
ralph.willems@catella.nl