Saturday, October 27, 2007

Jelmoli Cancels £1.4 Billion Sale Leaseback of 88 Retail Stores in Switzerland

Property Week - October 25, 2007

Delek Global Real Estate, a London-listed company with Israeli investor Igal Ahouvi, has pulled out of the £1.4bn purchase of Swiss department store Jelmoli’s property portfolio because of the turmoil in the financial markets.

In a statement to the LSE this morning Israel-based Delek said the price of the portfolio had not been adjusted to reflect the uncertainty in the global market. It has asked Jelmoli to drop the price to £1.27bn to £1.35bn in order to complete the deal – which was meant to sign on October 1.

The deal, comprising of 88 stores let to the Swiss retailer, would have been the largest ever portfolio sale in Switzerland with rent rolls around £47m a year increasing to around £75m in 2009 when the developments under way are completed. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Pierburg Completes Sale Leaseback Of Three Properties in Germany

PropertyEU - October 22, 2007

Natixis Capital Partners announced on Monday that it has bought three German industrial real estate sites in the western German city of Neuss from the automotive company Pierburg. The financial details were not disclosed. The properties provide a total lettable area of about 80,000 m2 and are earmarked for Naxitis' Captiva Capital Partners III fund. The assets have been leased back under terms of various lengths by Pierburg, which uses them for research & development, production, offices and storage, Natixis Capital Partners was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, PwC und URS. The seller was advised by Catella Corporate Finance. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Tiffany & Co. Completes £73 Million Sale Leaseback of Flagship Store in London

Tiffany & Co. Web Site - October 19, 2007

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) reported today that it has sold the building housing its flagship store in London for the price of £73,000,000 (approximately $149,000,000 at the sale date) and simultaneously entered into a 15-year lease with two 10-year renewal options. Tiffany had acquired the building at 25 Old Bond Street and an adjoining building at 15 Albermarle Street in 2002 for a total cost of $43,000,000 (U.S. dollar equivalent at the acquisition date). The acquisition was made in order to combine the buildings, renovate and reconfigure the interior retail selling space; that work was completed in 2006, allowing the Company to complete this sale and leaseback as planned.

This transaction results in a deferred, pretax gain of approximately $73,000,000, which will be amortized in selling, general and administrative expenses over a 15-year period, and is not expected to have a significant effect on future earnings. The Company plans to use the proceeds from the sale for general corporate purposes.

Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Since opening our flagship store in London in 1986, Tiffany has developed a substantial and highly successful presence in London. Combining the Old Bond Street and Albermarle Street properties into a spacious new store has generated sales growth beyond our expectations, and we had always planned to pursue a sale-leaseback transaction following the completion of construction. We now operate five stores in London, with a sixth opening next year, and continue to be excited about the growth potential we envision in that very important market. Sphere: Related Content

Casino Nearing EUR 650 Million Sale Leaseback of 274 Properties in France

PropertyEU - October 19, 2007

French retail company Casino plans to unlock the capital tied up in its food store properties that no longer offer strong development potential. The move, which marks a new phase in Casino's property management strategy, is aimed at funding projects in France and abroad. The company said that it will transfer 255 urban and semi-urban supermarket properties in France, representing a total of 170,000 m2 of retail sales area to a new vehicle called AEW Immocommercial.

AEW was one of the first five companies authorised by the French securities regulator (AMF) to operate as an 'OPCI' (property investment mutual fund) on 11 October. The group sees the OPCI as an opportunity to enhance the value of its property assets. OPCIs are the latest in the line of tax-friendly vehicles created in France to promote investment in property stocks, after the SCPIs (non-trading property investment companies) and SIICs (REIT-style structures). They are managed by independent portfolio management companies which must also be licensed by the AMF.

The investors in AEW Immocommercial will comprise a consortium of institutional investors managed by AEW Europe, and other investors, including Casino which will hold 10% to 18% of the vehicle's capital. The move follows the sale and leaseback of Casino's head office and warehouses in 2005 and 2006.

In another innovative move for retail property, the rents paid by Casino to AEW Immocommercial will be variable and calculated as a percentage of the stores' retail sales, without any guaranteed minimum and without any indexation on the French construction cost index, the company said. Averaging 3% of net retail sales, the total rent for 2008 will be around EUR 25 mln. The leases will be for an initial 12-year term, renewable four times. AEW Immocommercial will have initial assets of EUR 455 mln, including transfer taxes, of which 30% will be financed by a bank loan.

Saint-Etienne-based Casino said also that it has sold six hypermarket properties, seven supermarket properties and six warehouses on La RĂ©union Island to Generali for EUR 266 mln, including taxes. Casino said that it was to transfer the properties, which are owned by Vindemia, to a new vehicle, Immocio OPCI, which was also authorized by the AMF on 11 October. The company received then an offer from the Generali Group for Immocio's entire capital.

Vindemia will lease back the assets from Immocio under 9-year commercial leases with a renewal option. The initial rents would total about EUR 18 mln per year, representing around 2.5% of net sales for the hypermarkets and 1.6% for the supermarkets. The leases would be indexed on the French construction cost index. Vindemia will continue to own the land and the car parks on the hypermarket sites. The transaction will provide Vindemia with additional resources to speed up the development of its food retailing business and strengthen its market leadership.

Casino expects to complete the transactions before the end of the year. Sphere: Related Content

Friendly Ice Cream Completes Sale Leaseback of 160 Restaurants

MassLive.com - October 18, 2007

Friendly Ice Cream Corp. has sold its headquarters campus on Boston Road and 160 of its restaurants to subsidiaries of Realty Income Corp., a California-based company that specializes in buying retail properties and leasing them back to the original chains under long-term lease agreements. Most of the leases are repotedly for 40 years.

"This is not something that's uncommon," said James D. Sullivan, vice president for franchising and development at Friendly, yesterday. "This is really familiar in the restaurant industry. If you look at all the restaurant transactions recently, across a broad range of concepts, this is the norm. We had a number of properties encumbered with mortgages, and this was a way to eliminate some of that debt, through a sale-lease-back." The process is "part of the overall restructuring of the balance sheet for the company. It is more about securing our future for the long term," Sullivan said.

Friendly was acquired on Aug. 31 by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Boca Raton, Fla., for $337.2 million. Systemwide, the company has completed sale-lease-back transactions on 160 restaurants since Sun Capital bought the company on Aug. 31. The company has 316 company restaurants and 196 franchised restaurants.

Most of the sales involve company-operated stores, Sullivan said, though a few franchise restaurants are on Friendly-owned property and a few were sold and leased back to the company. Sphere: Related Content

Nike Enters into Sale Leaseback of Two Distribution Centers in ME & NH

Womens Wear Daily - October 19, 2007

Nike Inc. is partnering with real estate firm CB Richard Ellis in a sale-leaseback of its Cole Haan and Nike Bauer facilities in Yarmouth, Maine, and Greenland, N.H. According to an internal statement from James Seuss, president and chief executive officer of Cole Haan, and Mark Duggan, president and ceo of Nike Bauer Hockey, the financial transaction would take physical assets off the balance sheet and convert them to cash, allowing further investment in core businesses. The companies will lease rather than own the properties going forward, akin to what the company does with its New York offices. There have been talks about the initiative for two years. Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Essent Completes Sale Leaseack of 9 Properties in the Netherlands

PropertyEU - October 18, 2007

Dutch energy company Essent has bought a real estate portfolio including nine office and business properties. The assets were acquired via a sale-and-leaseback transaction with a joint venture of Utrecht's Top Vastgoed Beleggingen and Stolwijk's Burgland Vastgoed. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.

The portfolio involves some 62,000 m2 of space in buildings located in the Dutch cities of Roermond, Eindhoven, Den Bosch, Breda, Eemshaven, Emmen, Groningen, Leeuwarden en Hengelo. With the exception of Eindhoven, all the properties have been leased back to subsidiaries of Essent. DTZ Zadelhoff advised the energy company. Sphere: Related Content

Skechers Enters Build-to-Suit for Massive Warehouse Distribution Center in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Times - October 17, 2007

One of the country's largest warehouses will be built in Moreno Valley for Skechers USA Inc., the Manhattan Beach shoe manufacturer said Tuesday. Skechers has agreed to be the sole occupant of a 1.8-million-square-foot building it will use to distribute shoes across the United States and Canada. The rectangular building near the 215 and 60 freeways in Riverside County will be half a mile long.

"We believe this is the largest industrial lease by a single tenant under one roof ever in the United States," said real estate broker Darla Longo of CB Richard Ellis, the Los Angeles brokerage that represented both Skechers and landlord HF Logistics I in the transaction. HF Logistics, an affiliate of Moreno Valley industrial property developer Highland Fairview, should have the building ready by January 2009, said Paul Galliher, senior vice president of distribution for Skechers. It will consolidate operations now in five buildings in Ontario.

"Having everything all under one roof will obviously improve our efficiency," Galliher said. He said it would cost "well over $100 million" to build. The bulk of Skechers shoes are made in Asia and shipped through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Galliher said. It also has operations in Italy, Romania, Brazil and Mexico. At the new facility, shoes will be removed from shipping containers and placed on shelves as high as 42 feet. Robots will roam the aisles, pulling out pairs of shoes to fill orders from Skechers stores and other retailers.

It will take about 800 employees to operate the center, with the payroll swelling to about 1,100 during the peak back-to-school season, Galliher said. Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Mayer Brown Enters Long Term Lease for Washington, DC HQ

Washington Business Journal - October 16, 2007

Mayer Brown LP will move its headquarters to 1999 K St. NW, the Helmut Jahn-designed building currently under construction. The law firm, signed a 15-year lease on Tuesday, to occupy all of the building's office space -- 243,000 square feet -- as part of a consolidation and expansion of its D.C. operations. Mayer Brown expects to have 250 lawyers move into the space in the third quarter of 2009.

Mayer Brown began looking for space about 15 months ago. It wanted to consolidate its operations at 1909 K St. NW and Lafayette Center. The law firm was in late-stage negotiations to occupy about 245,000 square feet of space at 1000 Connecticut Ave. NW, which is to be redeveloped, but officials changed their minds.

Vornado/Charles E. Smith tore down the older office building at the corner of 20th and K streets to build a trophy space on that corridor. The company had started construction with no preleases signed. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Royal Bank of Scotland Seeking £900 Million Sale Leaseback of UK Property Portfolio

Property Week - October 12, 2007

The Royal Bank of Scotland has secretly put a £900m portfolio of property up for sale to help fund its takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro. Cushman & Wakefield is marketing the portfolio of sale-and-leaseback assets. It is the largest part of a £1.75bn raft of property sales to help fund the €71.1bn (£49.2bn) takeover, which went unconditional this week.

The £900m portfolio, codenamed Project Acorn, includes the Strand head office of the Queen’s bank, Coutts, Property Week can reveal. Among the other assets are RBS offices and bank branches at 1 Princes Street in Edinburgh and 28 Cavendish Square in London’s West End. The portfolio, which is three-quarters offices and a quarter high street bank branches, comprises 2.1m sq ft across 63 properties. It produces £47m a year in rent.

It is thought that RBS would consider providing debt for the potential bidder to ease the sale. The final bid deadline is expected in mid-November.

RBS has also put a third tranche of high street bank branches up for sale through Cushman & Wakefield, in a £200m package under the name of Liberty 3. It comprises about 150 freeholds and long leaseholds, totalling around 1.1m sq ft. RBS has sold two other Liberty portfolios since 2005 – the £100m Liberty portfolio and the £75m Liberty 2 to Joseph Ackerman.

The bank is also selling a £650m portfolio of four hotels that it had unsuccessfully tried to sell to Vector Hospitality. CB Richard Ellis Hotels advises on the sale, which includes the Waldorf Hilton and Cumberland hotels in London, the Park Inn at Heathrow and the Marriott Victoria & Albert in Manchester.

RBS would not comment on any of the sales. Sphere: Related Content

Ansbacher Seeking Sale Leaseback of London HQ

Property Week - October 12, 2007

Investment group Ansbacher plans to carry out a sale and leaseback of its 52,000 sq ft office at 2 London Bridge on London’s South Bank. It is offering a 25-year lease with a 20-year break with an annual income of around £2.2m, guaranteed by the Qatar National Bank. CB Richard Ellis is advising Ansbacher. Sphere: Related Content

Royal Bank of Scotland Plans $1.63 Billion Sale Leaseback of UK Property Portfolio

Reuters - October 12, 2007

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) is looking to unlock capital from its UK property estate by selling 800 million pounds ($1.63 billion) of assets, a market source told Reuters on Friday.

An RBS spokeswoman said the sale was part of an ongoing programme, without confirming specific details. She declined to comment on a report in the Financial Times which said the bank would use proceeds from a sale to help finance its share of the acquisition of Dutch bank ABN AMRO.

The bank has appointed property services firm Cushman & Wakefield to co-ordinate the sale of around 60 properties in one of the biggest British corporate sale-and-leasebacks this year, the source said. The portfolio includes a landmark building on London's Strand which is currently occupied by its private banking arm Coutts.

The sale-and-leaseback office deal represents the latest phase in the bank's long-term strategy to maximise value from real estate assets on its balance sheet. "RBS constantly reviews its space requirements to ensure that our property assets remain relevant to the needs of our business and have completed two tranches of property sales in the past two years," the RBS spokeswoman said. "These new tranches are part of this ongoing programme," she added.

Earlier this month, the bank put a 650 million pound portfolio of UK hotel assets on the market in a bid to realise profits gained during a four-year UK property boom, which ended this summer. Sphere: Related Content

Universal Technical Institute Completes $33 Million Sale Leaseback of Campus in Norwood, MA

Commercial Property News - October 12, 2007

Taking advantage of favorable market conditions, Universal Technical Institute Inc. completed a sale leaseback transaction on its Norwood, Mass., campus. The building and land were sold for $33 million to an undisclosed buyer.

The transaction resulted in an almost $500,000 gain that will be amortized over the lease term. Concurrent with the sale transaction, UTI entered into a long term lease with the purchaser for an initial term of 15 years with the option to extend for up to an additional 20 years. The transaction will enhance the company's cash position. UTI cut its staff and restructured sales functions recently, too. With this sale, all 10 UTI campuses are now being leased.

Located in the suburbs of Boston, the UTI Norwood campus benefits from the expansion of commercial real estate in the Boston area. Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Tesco Offering EUR 120 Million Sale Leaseback of Warehouse in North Dublin

Calibre / Irish Times - October 13, 2007

Tesco Ireland is preparing to sell its newly-opened distribution warehouse in Donabate, north Co Dublin, for more than 120 million. Under the terms of the deal, Tesco would lease back the 46-acre property for 25 years.

The Donabate warehouse covers 780,000 sq ft and has 79 loading bays. The site also has 600 car-parking spaces, a fuel island and a vehicle wash and steam cleaner.

A document being circulated to investors states that the initial rent will be 7 million a year, with annual reviews linked to the consumer price index up to a cap of 3.5 per cent. The initial net yield will be 5.24 per cent for the new owner. This yield is projected to grow to 9.71 per cent if inflation runs at 2.5 per cent a year over the 25 years of the lease.

Tesco, which has a 26 per cent share of the Irish grocery market, has engaged DTZ Sherry Fitzgerald in Dublin and Morgan Williams in London to market the property. Under the terms of the deal Tesco would be entitled to extend its facilities there or construct new buildings without the requirement for landlord consent. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, October 12, 2007

BMW Signs 1.2 Million SF Build-to-Suit for Two US Distrubution Centers

Commercial Property News - October 10, 2007

Industrial property giant ProLogis has inked a deal with the U.S.-based arm of German automaker BMW to develop about 1.2 million square feet of distribution space in the United States. BMW of North America has already preleased the space.

One facility will be a distribution center for BMW in eastern Pennsylvania totaling 870,000 square feet, and another in suburban Chicago totaling 306,000 square feet. BMW will use the facilities for storage and handling of automotive and motorcycle parts, as well as accessories other auto-related items. Both facilities will be built according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards of the U.S. Green Building Council.

In addition, ProLogis has acquired a 252,000-square-foot distribution facility from BMW in Mt. Olive, N.J., in a sale-leaseback deal. BMW will continue to occupy the building, which serves as its Northeast distribution center for automotive and motorcycle spare parts, under a lease agreement with ProLogis until completion of the Pennsylvania facility.

The new facilities will support the automaker’s presence in this country, where it sold about 313,000 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce automobiles in 2006. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Newell Rubermaid HQ in Atlanta Sold for $100 Million

Wells REIT II to Be Majority Partner in JV for $100M Office Tower near Atlanta

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II has teamed up again with Greenstone Properties, Granite Properties and Pope & Land Enterprises, agreeing to become the majority owner of Three Glenlake in suburban Atlanta. When completed in the second quarter of 2008, the $100 million, Class A office tower will become the new headquarters of Newell Rubbermaid.

The partners announced the joint venture today and said it will close upon completion of the 14-story, 355,000-square-foot building in Sandy Springs, Ga., which has been under construction since January. The amount Wells REIT II will pay for its majority stake was not released.

Newell Rubbermaid will be the only tenant to lease the property. The company has said it plans to consolidate three Atlanta area offices and will eventually have about 650 employees at Three Glenlake. Newell Rubbermaid will have a long-term lease for the property but the terms were not available today.

The property is located on Glenlake Parkway, near Abernathy Road and Georgia 400 in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket. Greenstone, Granite, and Pope & Land also developed One Glenlake. They sold that 353,000-square-foot office property to Wells REIT II in 2004. Sphere: Related Content

Kendall College Planning Sale Leaseback of Chicago Campus

Crain's Chicago Business - October 9, 2007

Kendall College is putting up for sale its newly renovated campus on Goose Island, which it will lease back from the new buyer.

Kendall has occupied the 178,000-square-foot building at Halsted Street and Chicago Avenue since January 2005, when the college moved from Evanston after buying the property. The building will go on the market unpriced, Kendall says in a statement.

“We are conducting a sale/leaseback of the property as a function of our commitment to our mission,” Nivine Megahed, Kendall’s president, says in the statement. “We want to focus our energies on providing students with the finest education possible and will be utilizing our capital for growth of programs and students — not on real estate.” Kendall has hired CB Richard Ellis Inc. to market the property at 900 N. North Branch St. CB Richard Ellis’ Michael Caprile, a vice-chairman, is the listing broker.

The school, a private college that offers degrees in business, hospitality management, culinary arts and early childhood education, uses all but 15,000 square feet of the building that it leases out to several tenants. Kendall plans to lease the entire building from the new buyer and sublease to existing tenants. Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

SunTrust Bank Enters $375 Million Sale Leaseback of 208 Retail Bank Branches and 8 Office Buildings in 8 US States & DC

SEC Edgar Database - October 5, 2007

We anticipate purchasing fee simple interests in a portfolio of 208 single tenant retail banking facilities and eight office buildings collectively known as the SunTrust Bank Portfolio. SunTrust Bank is the principal banking subsidiary of SunTrust Banks, Inc., a financial holding company with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The properties contain approximately 1,149,131 aggregate gross leasable square feet and are located in eight states and the District of Columbia. We anticipate purchasing these properties from an unaffiliated third party, SunTrust Bank, for approximately $374.9 million in cash, and may later borrow monies using these properties as collateral. We have made an initial non-refundable deposit of $9.4 million against the purchase price. This deposit will be refunded to us if closing fails to occur by December 28, 2007 as a result of the seller’s breach of the purchase agreement.

SunTrust Bank will lease all of the retail banking facilities in the portfolio for a term of ten years, commencing in December 2007 and terminating in December 2017. SunTrust may renew each of these leases for an additional term of ten years, and then for six additional five-year terms. Each of the leases requires SunTrust Bank to pay all taxes, insurance and maintenance expenses from use of the property.

(NOTE: The annual base rent for each property is expected to increase 1.75% each year. The portfolio is expected to be acquired at approximately a 7.2% cap rate.) Sphere: Related Content

Atlas Cold Storage Completes $170.7 Million Sale Leaseback of 11 Cold Storage Facilities in Four US States

SEC Edgar Database - October 5, 2007

On September 28, 2007, we purchased fee simple interests in a portfolio of eleven cold storage facilities collectively known as the Atlas Cold Storage Portfolio. The properties contain approximately 1.9 million aggregate gross leasable square feet located in four states. We purchased this portfolio from unaffiliated third parties, Atlas Cold Storage America, LLC and Atlas Cold Storage USA, Inc., for approximately $170.7 million. We funded the purchase price at closing entirely from our cash and equivalents. We may later borrow monies using these properties as collateral. We leased each of the properties to the sellers’ affiliate, Atlas Cold Storage Company, for terms ranging from ten to twenty years pursuant to leases that require the lessee to pay all taxes, insurance and maintenance expenses from use of the property.

(NOTE: The annual base rent for each property increases by 1.75% each year. Each lease may be extended for four additional five-year terms. The portfolio was acquired at approximately a 7.2% cap rate.) Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Siemens Italian HQ Sold for EUR 85 Million

PropertyEU - October 4, 2007

RAS Immobiliare has agreed with German electronics giant Siemens on the purchase of the company's Italian head office in Milan. The acquisition price comes to a total of EUR 85 mln. The office building was sold in a sale-and-lease-back transaction, news agency Radiocor said on Thursday. The property is earmarked for Antares, a closed-ended fund offering real estate exposure to institutional investors. Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Tufts Enters $116 Million Sale Leaseback of Two Medical Office Buildings in Boston

CoStar Group - October 3, 2007

Triple Net Properties LLC, on behalf of tenant-in-common investors, purchased the Biewend building at 260 Tremont St. and the Tupper building at 15 Kneeland St. in Boston from NEMC Real Estate Co. Inc. for $116 million, or approximately $460 per square foot. Concurrently, a 10-year triple net lease for 100% of both buildings was executed by Tufts-New England Medical Center in this sale-leaseback transaction.

The 14-story Biewend building has 154,500 square feet of medical-office space. The Class B office building was built in 1924 and was renovated in 1992. The Tupper Building, built in 1924 and renovated in 1983, is also a 14-story office-medical building containing 97,559 square feet. Both are on the Tufts-New England Medical center campus.

Triple Net Properties was self-represented. Philip G. Giunta of Grubb and Ellis represented NEMC Real Estate Co. Inc. Joseph A. Byers of Commercial Realty Capital arranged financing, which was provided by PNC Bank, National Association. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Matsushita Group Completes $735 Million Sale Leaseback 17 Industrial Properties in Japan

Commercial Property News - October 2, 2007

Distribution facility developer ProLogis has expanded its presence across Japan by 3.6 million square feet with the closing of a sale-leaseback deal with leading electronics company Matsushita Group. Denver-based ProLogis partnered with GIC Real Estate Pte. Ltd., the real estate investment division of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., to acquire the group of 17 industrial properties for $735 million.

Ranging in size from 84,000 square feet to 831,000 square feet, most of the facilities are located in the thriving Tokyo and Osaka distribution markets; however there are also assets in various other parts of Japan, including Sapporo City and Fukuoka Prefecture. Matsushita Group subsidiary Matsushita Logistics will continue to occupy 15 of the warehouses under mostly mid- to long-term lease agreements with ProLogis. Of the remaining two properties, the facility in Morioka will continue to be occupied by a Japanese logistics company and the smaller unoccupied facility in Osaka will be repositioned under ProLogis' guidance. The benefits for Matsushita are the same as those for companies that engage in sale-leaseback deals in the United States. "They are able to fortify their balance sheet and take capital that is tied up in real estate and focus on core businesses," a ProLogis spokesperson told CPN today. Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Eimskip Completes CDN$385 Million Sale Leaseback of Refrigerated Warehouse Facilities in US & Canada

Eimskip - October 1, 2007

Eimskip has completed the sale of 23 Public Refrigerated Warehouse Facilities located in the U.S. and Canada for gross proceeds of CDN$ 385 million. The net proceeds were used to repay the acquisition debt incurred in connection with the acquisition of Atlas Cold Storage, which was completed in November 2006.

In the last 12 months Eimskip has acquired both Atlas Cold Storage, which is the second largest cold storage company in North America and Versacold, which is the third largest cold storage company in North America. Eimskip has gained a leading position globally in cold storage operation with close to 200 cold storages in five continents.

The combined annual turnover of Atlas Cold Storage and Versacold is approx. CDN$ 1,200 million with 120 cold storages in operation in US, Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Atlas Cold Storage and Versacold combined employ 8,500 people.

The total acquisition cost of Atlas Cold Storage and Versacold amounted to CDN$ 1,800 million. As part of their operations both of these companies had substantial real estate holdings in the US, Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. CBRE, an international real estate services company, has estimated that the total value of these properties to be approximately CDN$ 1,600 million.

Eimskip has now completed the sale of a quarter of these properties, and received gross proceeds of CDN$ 385 million. All of the sold facilities were leased back by Atlas Cold Storage for approximately 20 years. The net proceeds were used to repay the Canadian acquisition debt incurred in connection with the acquisition of Atlas Cold Storage, which was completed in November 2006.

Eimskip is currently working on the sale of the remaining properties.

Baldur Gudnason, CEO of Eimskip:
“We believe the sale of Atlas’ properties is an important milestone in further development of Atlas Cold Storage’s and Versacold’s operations. The operation is running according to plan, and with the sale of these properties, key management can focus on its key competencies, providing world class cold storage services to its customers. Lately, Eimskip has been building an effective transportation network in temperature controlled goods worldwide and currently controls a 13%-15% share of the global cold storage market.

The realized value of the properties now sold were above our expectations, especially in light of the difficult current situation in the financial markets. We view this excellent result as a very positive sign for our future plans. We have delivered on our plan to repay the acquisition debt incurred in the connection with the acquisition of Atlas Cold Storage and to focus Atlas Cold Storage on its core operating activities”.

RBC Capital Markets Real Estate Group acted for Eimskip in this matter and Toronto-based KingSett Capital worked with Eimskip to structure this transaction. Sphere: Related Content

Monday, October 01, 2007

Citibank Seeking Sale Leaseback on 47-Bank Branches in the New York City Metro Area

GlobeSt - October 1, 20007

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is marketing a 47-branch sale-leaseback transaction through locally-based Newmark Knight Frank. The properties, which comprise 157,312 sf, are all in the metro New York area and include locations in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau counties.

Kenneth Zakin, senior managing director of NKF, will head the sales team, working in cooperation with Citigroup Global Markets, Citigroup’s investment banking division. “The buildings are being offered as a package, or as individual properties, or broken up into several smaller portfolios,” Zakin explains, “and each of them are owned and solely occupied by a long-term net-leased Citibank retail branch.”

Zakin tells GlobeSt.com that there is no asking price for the portfolio as the deal will be conducted through a bidding process. The initial bids are scheduled to be collected by Oct. 9.

This is the second such offering Citigroup and NKF has brought to the market this year. In June, the team closed on the sale of a 23-branch, 217,000-sf Citibank portfolio, with properties centered in the New York City metro area.

“This is another very attractive portfolio for investors seeking multiple assets or 1031 exchange, as the properties are diversified by location within the strongest growth market in the US--and fully occupied on a long-term basis by Citibank, a company which is rated AA+ by Standard & Poor’s and Aaa by Moody’s,” Zakin remarks.

Zakin says that the properties range in size from 2,000 sf to 8,000 sf. He also details to GlobeSt.com that there are 20 properties in Nassau, eight in Suffolk, three in Queens, four in Brooklyn, three in the Bronx, three in Statin Island, five in Westchester and one in Upper Manhattan. Sphere: Related Content

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