Sunday, July 20, 2008

C&S Wholesale Grocers Completes $49 Million Sale leaseback of Distribution Center Near Birmingham

Birmingham Business Journal - July 18, 2008

Bruno's Supermarkets' food distributor C&S Wholesale Grocers recently sold its distribution facility in Oxmoor Valley to a real estate investment trust for nearly $49 million in a sale leaseback transaction.

Illinois-based Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. purchased the 1.3 million-square-foot distribution facility and leased the facility back to New Hampshire-based C&S for 15 years.

Ogden Deaton with Birmingham's Graham & Co. Inc. brokered the deal along with CB Richard Ellis out of New Hampshire. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Indonesia Planning $2.01 Billion Sale Leaseback of Finance Ministry Land and Property

Reuters - July 11, 2008

An Indonesian parliamentary working committee approved the government's plan to issue Islamic bonds, also known as sukuk, late on Thursday, clearing the way for issuance in the domestic and global market this year. Here are some details about the sukuk.

* currency: rupiah-denominated sukuk to be sold in the domestic market and dollar-denominated sukuk abroad.

* timetable: August for the domestic issue and October for the international sukuk.

* underlying assets: 18.371 trillion rupiah ($2.01 billion) of finance ministry land and property assets will back the bonds.

* proceeds: will be used to finance the state budget.

* structure of contract: Ijarah sale-and-leaseback, where the sukuk is backed by the purchase, sale or lease of physical properties.

* maturity: the government can set the debt maturity and has previously said it is looking to borrow for seven to 10 years.

* return: fixed coupon rate

* the parliamentary working commission also approved the government's plans to issue the following instruments: long-term sukuk Al Ijarah, retail sukuk, Islamic treasury bills, sukuk for project financing, and exchangeable sukuk. ($1=9,154 rupiah) Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Deutsche Post Completes €1 Billion Sale Leaseback of 1,267 Postal Properties Across Germany

Property Week - July 8, 2008

Lone Star has raised more than €700m (£556m) of bank finance for its €1bn (£795m) purchase of a Deutsche Post property portfolio in Germany.

Lone Star sealed the financing for the sale & leaseback with banks Eurohypo, Natixis, DekaBank and Societe Generale, yesterday. It provided the remaining €300m (£238m) itself.

The fundraising comes after the global private equity investor and fund manager agreed a deal to buy the 1,267 strong portfolio in April in the biggest commercial property deal seen in Germany this year. The deal was struck on behalf of its Lone Star Real Estate Fund.

The portfolio is split 70% mixed-use properties and 30% logistics properties and development sites. The mixed-use properties typically comprise ground floor retail with offices and residential space on top and are 16,000 sq ft in size on average.

The portfolio is spread across Germany with many of the properties in small town centres although some are in the suburbs of major cities such as Munich and Hamburg. The unexpired lease lengths in the portfolio vary from two to ten years.

Knight Frank advised Lone Star and Morgan Stanley advised Deutsche Post. Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Gilat Satellite Networks Seeking $70 Million Sale Leaseback of Two Office Building in Israel

Globes - July 6, 2008

Sources inform "Globes" that Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT; TASE: GILT) wants to sell its two office buildings for $70-80 million in sell and lease-back deals. The two properties are located in Kiryat Arie in Petah Tikva. The sources added that it has contacted Israel's top insurance companies -- Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. (TASE: HARL), Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLIS), Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MGDL), and Israel Phoenix Assurance Ltd. (TASE: PHOE1;PHOE5) -- about a deal.

The VSAT satellite communications equipment maker and services provider owns two of the four building in the Daniv Park in Kiryat Arie, which were built by Denisra International Ltd. in the late 1990s. Gilat purchased two of the buildings for its own use. Gilat is about to be sold to a consortia led by Gores Group LLC and Mivtach Shamir Holdings Ltd. (TASE:MISH). Sphere: Related Content

Friday, July 04, 2008

Barclays Completes EUR 65 Million Sale Leaseback of 24 Properties in Spain

Property Week - July 2, 2008

Redevco, the Dutch property company, has bought 24 Barclays banks for €65m (£51.5m).

The 24 banks and commercial buildings have been bought on a purchase and leaseback basis with Barclays on long term leases. The properties are located in prime retail high streets in nine Spanish cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Málaga, Vigo and Alicante.

Jones Lang LaSalle acted as intermediary in the deal. Redevco is part of a stable of companies owned by the family that founded retailer C&A. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, July 03, 2008

AT&T Completes $285 Million Sale Leaseback of Lindbergh Center in Atlanta

Atlanta Business Chronicle - July 1, 2008

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II has acquired Lindbergh Center in Atlanta's Buckhead submarket in a sale-leaseback from AT&T Inc.

Financial terms were not released.

Lindbergh Center has twin 14-story, class-A office buildings connected by a four-story atrium, totaling 955,000 square feet. It is at Piedmont Road and Lindbergh Drive, next to MARTA's Lindbergh station. The development is part of Lindbergh City Center, a 47-acre live/work/play development.

AT&T Services Inc. will continue to occupy 100 percent of the property under a new lease from Wells through 2020.

The deal marks Norcross, Ga.-based Wells REIT II's second recent acquisition from AT&T (NYSE: T) in Buckhead. In May, it bought a five-building, 1-million-square-foot office campus in Buckhead through a sale-leaseback.

"We said a month ago it was rare to acquire a million square feet of prime office property, fully leased to a world-class tenant, in the top submarket of a top-10 city," said Don Henry, chief real estate officer of Wells Real Estate Funds. "A month later, we've done it again."

(Note: SEC filing dated August 21, 2008 indicates a purchase price of $285 million and an initial annual rent of $19.9 million for an initial cap rate of approximately 7.0%.) Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

HSBC May Unwind £1.1 Billion Sale Leaseback of Canary Wharf HQ

This is Money - June 29, 2008

HSBC is believed to have approached potential buyers for its skyscraper head office in London's Canary Wharf amid fears it might have to repossess the building from the Spanish property group that paid a record £1.1bn for it last year.

Metrovacesa, Spain's largest property company, is trying to refinance the £810m of short-term debt it took out with HSBC to buy 8 Canada Square, in what was Britain's biggest single building sale. Although the loan runs until November, Metrovacesa and the banking giant are thought to have wanted to thrash out a refinancing by the end of this month.

However, with lenders having shut up shop in the credit crunch, borrowings are hard to find.

If Metrovacesa, controlled by the Sanahuja family, cannot refinance, HSBC may take back possession of the 42-storey tower - its global headquarters since 2002. In recent weeks it has made approaches to possible buyers, including sovereign wealth funds.

If HSBC, which has been under attack from investment company Knight Vinke over its troubled US business, repossesses the building, it will be keen to sell it on quickly.

However, the appetite for major property deals has dried up and the bank's advances have been snubbed by at least one potential buyer. A spokesman for HSBC declined to comment. Under the terms of the deal with Metrovacesa, HSBC agreed to lease back the building for 20 years at an annual rent of £43.5m with an option to extend for a further five years.

In Metrovacesa's accounts for last year it had written down the value of the building to £1bn. The Sanahujas, who started their property empire in the Seventies in Barcelona, fought a tough battle for control of Metrovacesa in 2006. Sphere: Related Content

Fortis Enters EUR 94 Million Sale Leaseback of Two Office Buildings in Belgium

PropertyEU - June 30, 2008

Belgian property group Befimmo said it has acquired two buildings in Belgium from Fortis Bank for an overall purchase price of EUR 94mln.

The first building is located in Antwerp and comprises two technically independent wings over a total 21,253 m2. The Meir wing is a classic-style building let entirely to Fortis Bank for a term of 27 years while the Wapper wing is a contemporary building used as offices and a bank branch, whichis also let entirely to Fortis Bank for a term of 18 years. The other building is situated at Vital Decosterstraat 42-44 in Leuven and is three-quarters let to Fortis Bank on leases of 12 and 15 years. The rest of the second building is let to other tenants.

For Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis, the transaction came as it raised EUR 1.5bn through the issue of new shares and announced a number of other measures to shore up its finances. Fortis said these would also include a total of EUR 1.5bn in sale-and-leaseback transactions of real estate like the deal that was announced with Befimmo. Sphere: Related Content

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