Mervyn's Completes $400 Million Sale Leaseback of 39 Mervyn's Stores

CoStar Group - February 29, 2008

Shopping Mall REIT, Macerich (NYSE: MAC), is nearing completion on the acquisition of 43 Mervyn's department stores, totaling 3.4 million square feet, for $430 million. The transaction consummated at the end of 2007 and Macerich has already closed on 39 of the 43 stores for $400.2 million, the remainder will close this quarter. Leaseback terms include a 20-year initial term with extension options.

In its fourth quarter conference call, Arthur Coppola, president and CEO, said the portfolio sale-leaseback deal was one of the company's "most unique and diverse" deals. Coppola explained the company's decision to seize the opportunity; "Thirteen of these Mervyn's stores are located in Macerich malls. We immediately went to Mervyn's and the broker and attempted to buy those 13 stores because we certainly did not want to have a traditional buyer all of a sudden become the owner of the Mervyn's stores in our regional Centers. In many cases, large tracts of land were connected to the Mervyn's stores. As we got deeper into the transaction, we got more intrigued with it, because we realized that we will be able to buy both our stores as well as these others stores at a very attractive return. But, more importantly, we are able to open up redevelopment opportunities at all of our existing properties [giving] Mervyn's a restricted parking area surrounding their store...they essentially have given us Carte Blanche to do anything that we want at the center, which is a tremendous amount of redevelopment freedom that we have been able to obtain as a result."

Coppola said returns on the overall portfolio ended up "very attractive," at an average 7.25 percent. "This ranges from some of the centers internally on our books, in our minds being valued at 5% to 6% cap rates, to some of the strip center locations being valued at 9% and 10% returns," he said. In total, 30 of the stores are located in regional malls, while the balance are freestanding or part of community centers.

Aside those planned for redevelopment, Macerich expects to have disposed of most of the stores within the next 18 to 24 months.

Mervyn's operates 178 stores in eight southwest states. The retailer was bought from Target Corporation by private investors including Sun Capital and Cerberus Capital Management in 2004. It has since closed approximately 80 stores. Sphere: Related Content

IHOP Planning $350 Million Sale Leaseback of 190 Applebee's Restaurants

IHOP Web Site - February 27, 2008

IHOP Corp. (NYSE: IHP) today provided financial guidance and highlighted key operational and financial benchmarks that will drive the performance of its IHOP and Applebee's businesses in fiscal 2008.

These benchmarks include the sale-leaseback of approximately 190 company-owned Applebee's restaurant locations as well as its Restaurant Support Center headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas. These actions are expected to generate after-tax cash proceeds of approximately $350 million and approximately $40 million, respectively.

Based in Glendale, California, IHOP Corp. franchises and operates restaurants under the International House of Pancakes, or IHOP, and the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar brands. With more than 3,300 restaurants combined, IHOP Corp. is the largest full-service restaurant company in the world. Sphere: Related Content

Sony Agrees to $1 Billion Sale Leaseback of European HQ in Berlin

February 28, 2008 - Reuters

Japanese consumer electronics maker Sony Corp said on Thursday that it has agreed to sell its European headquarters and entertainment complex in Berlin to a consortium led by Morgan Stanley-run funds.

Sony said it will remain as the main tenant in the eight-building Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz, which draws more than eight million visitors per year.

Morgan Stanley and Sony both declined to comment on the size and terms of the sale and leaseback, although a spokeswoman for Sony said the initial cost of the development was 750 million euros ($1.13 billion).

Reports put the size of the deal at between $940 million and $1.13 billion. Sphere: Related Content

Saint Vincent Signs 15-Year Lease for 64 Residences For Hospital Staff in Jersey City, NJ

Multi-Housing News - February 25, 2008

Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent’s), the umbrella organization for several hospitals and healthcare facilities, has signed a 15-year lease with SK Properties, a Bridgewater, N.J.-based real estate company, for 65 apartments at Grove Pointe in downtown Jersey City, N.J. The lease is worth $34 million.

The residences in the 30-story luxury rental building, developed by SK Properties, is to be occupied by resident and intern physicians, doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel.

“Saint Vincent’s was unable to find a building in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, close to the hospital facility, which is why they started looking at Jersey City,” says Jonathan Kushner, a principal of SK Properties.

Grove Pointe is a studio, one- and two-bedroom apartment complex accessible by the PATH trains from Saint Vincent’s location in Manhattan.

“We were very pleased to find an adequate number of residential units to meet our needs at Grove Pointe,” says James Woods, senior vice president, Real Estate Services at Saint Vincent’s. “The building is a short commute to the hospital.”

Rents for the studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments start at $1,950.

Amenities include outdoor landscaped deck with a pool and sundeck, fitness club, yoga studio, game room with billiard table, private screening room and catering kitchen. The building also has a 24-hour doorman and concierge, on-site parking garage, and 20,000 sq. ft. of ground-floor retail space that is expected to include a Starbucks, Duane Reade Pharmacy and Valley National Bank. Sphere: Related Content

Coca Cola Enters $80 Million Sale Leaseback of Distribution Facility in Sydney

The Age - February 20, 2008

Goodman International Ltd says it has secured a 15-year commitment from Coca Cola Amatil Ltd (CCA) to develop its new western Sydney storage and distribution facility for $80 million.

The purpose-built CCA centre will be developed on a 9.25-hectare site at the 150-hectare M7 Business Hub at Eastern Creek. The CCA property will be owned by the Goodman Australia Industrial Fund (GAIF).

CCA purchased the land and has now has entered into a sale-and-lease back agreement for an initial term of 15 years on the 31,225-square-metre facility. The distribution centre is the second such facility Goodman has secured from CCA in recent years. The previous commitment included the initial development of a 27,399-square-metre storage and distribution facility in Mentone, Melbourne Sphere: Related Content

Greek Govt Planning $1.3 Billion Sale Leaseback of State Property Portfolio

Kathimerini - February 16, 2008

A plan by the Ministry of Finance is entering its final stages for the exploitation of a major part of state-owned properties. This will be done under a sale-and-leaseback scheme worked out by the Greek Public Real Estate Corporation (KED).

According to reports, KED has already finalized the list of state-owned properties that will make up the basic core of the specific portfolio. Its value is expected to amount to some –1.3 billion. The plan involves 26 properties, some of which are still under construction.

The main objective of KED is to include buildings “of a younger age,” currently occupied by state services, ministries, tax offices and police offices. The young age of a property is envisaged as making the relevant bids more attractive to private investors.

Each bid is to be drafted according to the special features of each property. In some cases, the model to be selected will be “lease and leaseback,” while others would follow the “sale and leaseback” model.

Property market operators are looking forward to the program’s commencement, stressing that it will almost certainly draw much interest from firms specializing in property investments, given that the specific product offers all of the desired qualities for such companies, and in addition guarantees steady and secure leases.

Eurobank Properties, according to reports, is to be among the first private companies to claim involvement in the scheme, when implemented.

Properties making up the sale-and-leaseback portfolio include buildings used by the ministries of Tourism and Culture, a Transport Ministry building on Mesogeion Avenue, the building occupied by the Press and Media Ministry, as well as the National Statistics Service building.

The portfolio’s final composition is to be decided next month, and its overall value is expected to be higher by at least –500 million, compared to the initial planning. Sphere: Related Content

Jones Lang LaSalle Counts £7.7 Billion in Sale Leaseback Transactions in 2007

Property Week - February 15, 2008

The 2007 Jones Lang LaSalle Portfolio Market Review, published last week, showed that the volume of sale and leasebacks peaked in 2007, as growing numbers of occupiers looked to extract value from their property portfolios. The report identified a total of £7.7 billion in sales in 96 portfolios – up from £6.7 billion in 72 portfolios in 2006.

The report said: ‘Despite recent market conditions, these continued to sell where positive sentiment towards the leaseback covenant existed.’

Sale and leasebacks accounted for 43% of transactions, whereby corporate occupiers sold £3.3bn of property assets. The remaining 57% were investment property portfolios.

The most sizeable transactions the £400m Macdonald Hotels portfolio, the £400m Thistle Hotels portfolio and the £680m Capio Healthcare portfolio all took place in the first two quarters of 2007.

JLL states that, although the third quarter appeared to confirm a decline in activity as the credit crunch took hold, ‘the Royal Bank of Scotland’s £800m Acorn Portfolio bucked this trend and the year drew to a close with optimism for 2008’.

Mark Cotterall, head of global real estate for BT and CoreNet Global UK Chapter board member, said: ‘The reason corporates do sale and leasebacks is to release asset value.

Richard Shepherd-Cross, a director at Jones Lang Lasalle, said: ‘The portfolio market appeared to buck the trend of reduced market turnover, which we were seeing across the board last year this was a result of corporate sale and leasebacks, which propped up sales. Ignoring corporate sale and leaseback activity general market turnover in the portfolio market was down 20% in 2007.

He added: ‘Whereas corporate sale and leasebacks accounted for only 20% of portfolio sales in 2006, they accounted for over 40% in 2007. Of this, it was the banks and hoteliers who contributed to over 40% of the sale and leaseback activity.’

Shepherd-Cross predicted that ‘2008 will see a reduction in sale and leaseback activity as current market yields make it less attractive to the corporate owner’. Sphere: Related Content

$A50 Million Supermarket Portfolio Coming to Market in Melbourne

Business Spectator / Australian Financial Review - February 13, 2008

A portfolio of five supermarkets will be auctioned in Melbourne in late February 2008. Three Woolworths supermarkets in three states and two Coles supermarkets in New South Wales comprise the $A50 million portfolio. The properties will be offered for sale and leaseback on terms of up to 60 years. Capitalisation rates are forecast to soften in 2008, but investors continue to have confidence in quality properties with secure leases. Sphere: Related Content

Stanchart Signs Build-to-Suit for Office Building in Singapore

The Straits Times - February 12, 2007
Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart) has signed a $206 million deal to lease a customised building at Changi Business Park to house its backroom operations from 2010.

The deal, involving a 15-year lease, puts Stanchart's total spending on relocation and consolidation projects over the next 10 to 12 years at over $1 billion.

The six-storey building will have 225,000 sq ft to house up to 2,000 backroom staff. As the bank's business grows, it could add a second and third phase to increase its space there to 700,000 sq ft.

This move to an industrial location - after it leased 24 floors at the yet-to-be completed Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) last April - is to accommodate the bank's mid- to long- term expansion.

'The two properties will accommodate a projected increase in headcount from about 4,700 to over 6,000 by 2010,' said Stanchart chief executive Lim Cheng Teck on Tuesday.

These leasing deals allow the bank to lock in a significant chunk of future costs, giving it the opportunity to grow at a much faster pace, he said.

'There will always be cyclical challenges. We are very bullish on Singapore, which is why we are investing ahead,' he said.

When Stanchart moves to the new premises, it will vacate all its current office premises, apart from its 6 Battery Road location where it has a 30-year lease of the 10th floor due to expire in 2020.

The MBFC premises will be Stanchart's main business centre.

Mr Lim said the bank's business has performed strongly on the back of robust economic growth in Singapore and the region.

'We will build on the momentum to capture in-country and regional opportunities.'

The Changi Business Park building will be built by Ascendas. Stanchart will lease it for 15 years from late 2010, with a review every five years and an option to lease it for another 15 years. Sphere: Related Content

UK Govt Office Building in London Pre-Sold for $263 Million

PropertyWeek - February 11, 2008

Private clients of HSBC Private Bank have bought UBS’s 160 Tooley Street for around £135m. The price paid for the office development which is let to Southwark Council reflects an initial yield of around 5.25%.

Southwark Council will take occupation early next year and has signed a 25-year lease at £38.50/sq ft. UBS Global Asset Management put the building up for sale in November for around £140m. The rental income from Southwark Council at the 200,000 sq ft building is around £7.5m a year.

Tudor Toone advised UBS and Whitmarsh Holt Young advised HSBC private bank. Sphere: Related Content

UBS Completes $263 Million Sale Leaseback of London Office Tower

Reuters - February 11, 2008

UBS Global Asset Management said on Monday it has sold an office building near London's City financial district to HSBC Private Bank for 135 million pounds ($263 million) and a rental yield of around 5.3 percent.

Richard Tanner, director of UK property funds at UBS (UBSN.VX), said local government was poised to move into the new 200,000 square foot (18,580 sq metre) property in the London Bridge area, across the river from the City, on a 25-year lease.

"It's a quasi-bond type asset and the market is reasonably liquid for these types of assets," he told Reuters. "I wouldn't say the market is hot for all types of properties but, for London offices on reasonably good terms and solid covenants, there seems to be a fair degree of liquidity."

Benchmark data showed a 12 percent drop in average UK commercial property values from their summer peak to the end of last year -- a peak-to-trough fall which may yet grow to 25-30 percent in 2008/2009, according to the property derivatives market.

UK commercial property transactions have slumped as buyers and sellers adjust to a more bearish climate, and were 60 percent down in January compared with the same month last year.

Tanner said the London Bridge office sale was on behalf of UBS's 600 million pound South East Recovery Fund, a specialist office fund, out of a total UK property portfolio worth around 3 billion pounds.

He declined to comment on whether the asking price of the Tooley Street office was cut to secure a sale, although earlier media reports said it had been put on the market in November for 140 million pounds.

Tanner said UBS expected to buy and sell a few more UK property assets this year with a reasonably stable income.

"Accepting there is a very uncertain economic backdrop, there are a variety of areas of the property market which look attractive at current pricing and a couple of areas which look a bit sparky," he said.

HSBC Private Bank could not be immediately reached for comment. Sphere: Related Content

Raben Group Completes Sale Leaseback of Two Distribution Centers in Poland

PropertyEU - February 7, 2008

Pramerica Real Estate Investors has acquired two logistics centres in Poland on behalf of its open-ended fund TMW Immobilien Weltfonds from European logistics company Raben Group. The Polish investment team of Jones Lang LaSalle, which acted for Raben, described the dual deals as the 'first institutional quality sale-and-lease-back transactions' in Poland for the logistic sector.

JLL said the centres, totalling 70,500 m2, are strategically located in Gadki (near Poznan) and Grodzisk Mazowiecki (near Warsaw) on the main TIR routes. A 10-year lease was signed by Raben for 100% of the premises. Poland-based Raben carried out the transaction to generate additional financial means for expansion. Raben operates in Estonia, Holland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. It has over 260,000 m2 of warehousing space spread across a network of terminals in Europe. Sphere: Related Content

NuVasive Enters Long Term Lease for HQ in San Diego

Cityfeet - February 7, 2008

Medical device maker NuVasive Inc. has signed a $113 million, 15-year lease to relocate the company's headquarters to 143,614 sf of class A office and R&D space at Veralliance Properties Inc.'s Sorrento Summit life sciences campus. The new lease will approximately double the amount of headquarters space occupied by NuVasive, which designs, develops and markets products for the surgical treatment of spine disorders.

According to Daniel J. Ryan, principal with San Diego-based Veralliance, NuVasive will occupy the 143,614 sf in two existing buildings at 7473 Lusk Blvd. (71,112 sf) and at 7475 Lusk Blvd. (72,502 sf). NuVasive also has options to lease additional space in a third building that will begin construction in January 2009 and add approximately 125,000 sf to the Sorrento Summit campus.

NuVasive will pay base rent of $2.43 per sf, escalating at an annual rate of 3% over the 15-year period of the lease, according to public filings by the company, which is listed on Nasdaq. Relocation to the new facility is expected to be completed in phases in the first and second quarters of this year.

NuVasive says that the agreement with Veraillance provides for facility expansion rights to an aggregate of more than 300,000 leased sf, under terms of which the medical technology company is required to make minimum lease payments, including operating expenses, of $2.4 million in 2008, $6.1 million in 2009, $6.4 million in 2010, $6.6 million in 2011, $6.8 million in 2012 and $84.9 million thereafter for a total of $113.2 million over the 15-year period.

In the lease with Veraillance, NuVasive was represented by Jeff Manley of Cresa Partners West Inc. The building owner was represented by Chad Urie of Colliers International and Brian Driscoll of Grubb & Ellis|BRE. Sphere: Related Content

Continental Tire Agrees to 29.4 Million Sale Leaseback of HQ in Charlotte, NC

Tire Review Online - February 6, 2008

The sprawling Continental Tire North America headquarters site in Charlotte, N.C. will soon be re-born as a business complex following its sale to a developer.

Philadelphia-based Patriot Equities, a company specialising in the purchasing and leasing back of corporate buildings, has agreed to acquire the tyre manufacturer’s offices and former factory for $29.4 million.

CTNA has taken out a 10-year lease on a portion of the site, and will continue its tenancy there in a reduced capacity. Of the 1.7 million square feet of commercial space contained in the site, the company will now lease and occupy 600,000 square feet.

During January 2008 CTNA made the significant disclosure that its North American operations, in the red for several years, seem likely to have broken even in 2007. It is not clear if, or to what extent, the proceeds from the headquarters sale have contributed towards this return to the black. Sphere: Related Content

ANZ Seeking $100 Million Sale Leaseback of 47 Bank Branches

Sydney Morning Herald - February 5, 2008

ANZ Banking Group Ltd will sell and lease back 47 branch sites and three commercial office buildings across Australia as part of its long-term property strategy.

The 47 branches are the only remaining fully owned retail sites of ANZ's 800-plus national branch network.

The bank's global property head, Jane Hamilton, said the branches would remain an important part of ANZ's network.

The bank has opened more than 80 new branches since 2004 and chose to lease rather than purchase the sites outright, in line with its long-term property strategy, Ms Hamilton said.

The sale and lease back of the ANZ portfolio will be managed by Jones Lang LaSalle and has a potential end-value of more than $100 million.

Auctions will be held on March 18, 19 and 20 in Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.

(Link to the property offering web site) Sphere: Related Content

UnitedHealthcare Services Completes Sale Leaseback of Office Building in St. Louis

Commercial Property News - February 4, 2008

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II has taken UnitedHealthcare Services’ five-story office building in suburban St. Louis, the fund has reported. The deal is a sale-leaseback, and UnitedHealthcare has signed a long-term lease for 100 percent of the property.

The building has 188,500 square feet on five floors, and was built for UnitedHealthcare a decade ago in Riverpor-Earth City, the area’s largest mixed-use business park, northeast of St. Louis. The park offers direct access to Interstates 70 and 270, and is just five minutes from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

No other terms of the deal were disclosed. Sphere: Related Content

National Grid Agrees to 20-Year Build-to-Suit HQ Near Boston

The Boston Globe - January 20, 2008

National Grid has taken a 20-year lease on an entire building at the East Campus of Reservoir Woods in Waltham. Reservoir Woods is being developed by Davis Marcus Partners of Boston.

The 312,000-square-foot building at 40 Sylvan St. will hold a high Gold environmental rating from the US Green Building Council, an industry group, according to the council. The building was designed by ADD Inc. of Cambridge. Jones Lang LaSalle represented National Grid, the energy provider.

CB Richard Ellis represented David Marcus Partners. The three-story building is expected to be ready for occupancy in mid-2009. Sphere: Related Content

AT&T Completes $242 Million Sale Leaseback of Two Office Towers in Atlanta

Atlanta Journal & Constitution - January 31, 2008

A German real estate investment company purchased two former BellSouth buildings - Midtown I and II.

KanAm Grund paid $242 million for the buildings at 754 and 725 Peachtree St., according to Databank. That equates to about $304 a square foot.

AT&T put the buildings on the market last year after acquiring BellSouth in December 2006. The office space is being leased back to AT&T and is full.

Gregory Moore, president of KanAm Grund America, said AT&T's long-term lease and Midtown's bright future made the property attractive.

"We like the way that Midtown Mile is developing," Moore said. The two buildings are KanAm Grund's first Atlanta acquisitions. CB Richard Ellis brokered the deal.

Last summer, a Chicago company bought the prominent Midtown building Campanile, formerly the headquarters of BellSouth, for nearly $98 million. Sphere: Related Content

Mitchells & Butlers Unwinds Sale Leasebck of 1,300 UK Pub Portfolio

Telegraph - January 29, 2008

Mitchells & Butlers' finance director has resigned and the chief executive has offered to go after an attempt at a complex financial plan went wrong in the face of the credit crunch, costing the owner of the All Bar One chain £274m.

Tim Clarke, M&B's chief executive, also offered to resign, but the offer was rejected. All executive directors, including Mr Naffah, have agreed to forego their 2007 bonuses.

The losses were made when M&B decided to close interest rate and inflation hedges that were put in place to protect plans for a property joint venture that was shelved with the onset of the credit crisis. The property deal would have seen M&B sell about 1,300 pubs into a specially created company and then lease them back.

The idea was to give M&B a cash windfall from the sale of property to return to shareholders. On the advice of bankers from Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland, Mr Naffah opted to take out inflation and interest rate hedges to protect M&B against the extra debt it was taking on to do the deal and to hedge against long-term rises in pub rents.

The trouble was that recent turmoil in the financial markets has meant that long-term expectations for interest rates and inflation have shifted. M&B expected long-term inflation to fall and interest rates to rise.

In a sign of how rapidly M&B's position got worse, post-tax losses associated with the hedges stood at £180m in early January, but as economic conditions worsened and the expectation that interest rates will be cut has grown, the loss has escalated to £274m in a matter of days and weeks. Sphere: Related Content

Santander Completes EUR 605 Million Sale Leaseback of HQ Near Madrid

Reuters - January 25, 2008

Spanish bank Santander (SAN.MC) will make a capital gain of 605 million euros ($886 million) from a leaseback deal on its headquarters at Boadilla del Monte on the outskirts of Madrid, sources said on Friday.

Santander confirmed the 1.9 billion-euros deal with a consortium led by property investment firm Propinvest which will lease back the complex to Santander for 40 years with the bank having an option to purchase at that time.

The bank has already made disposals which produced 2 billion euros in profit, after selling 1,152 bank branches and other buildings in Spain to a company owned by British insurer Pearl Group in November, a deal leading to a capital gain of 860 million euros.

The same month, Santander sold 10 buildings to an investment vehicle owned by Armancio Ortega, the founder of retail group Inditex (ITX.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), for 458 million euros, making a capital gain of 216 million euros.

The headquarters complex, known as "Santander Financial City", has more than 400,000 square metres of office space plus other facilities such as a hotel and an 18-hole golf course.

The bank said the headquarters deal concluded the sale of its real estate assets through sale and leaseback deals which have totalled nearly 4.4 billion euros and generated a net capital gain of 1.7 billion euros. Sphere: Related Content

Berry Plastics Enters $87 Million Sale Leaseback for Three US Facilities

CoStar Group - January 23, 2008

Berry Plastics sold its headquarters and three facilities to affiliates of W.P. Carey & Co. LLC in an $87 million sale-leaseback deal. W. P. Carey’s REIT affiliate, CPA(R):16-Global, and fund, CPA(R):17-Global, acquired more than 1.4 million square feet in flex/industrial space in Indiana, Maryland and Kansas.

The portfolio includes:

Berry Plastics’ headquarters and largest production facility at 101 Oakley St., a 96-year-old, 552,000-square-foot, Class B flex building in Evansville, IN;

A manufacturing plant at 1810 Portal St., a 25-year-old, 244,000-square-foot, Class B industrial facility in Baltimore, MD; and,

2330 Packer Road, a 37-year-old Class C industrial property in Lawrenceville, KS.

Berry Plastics, a plastic packaging products manufacturer, leased back all three properties on a long-term basis. The deal allowed the manufacturer to raise needed financing.

"The sale-leaseback of these three facilities allowed us to raise funds for an add-on acquisition," said Ira G. Boots, chairman and CEO of Berry Plastics Corp.

Another W. P. Carey fund, CPA(R):15, completed a $33 million sale-leaseback with Berry Plastics five years ago. Sphere: Related Content

White Water Auto Care Center Seeking $92.5 Million Sale Leaseback of 15 Car Washes in CA

CSP Daily News - January 23, 2008

A dozen full-service car-wash and convenience-store sites in Southern California hit the sale market at an asking price of $92.5 million, as reported in a CSP Daily News Flash yesterday, as White Water Auto Care Center prepares to access some of the capital tied up in its real estate.

The 12 sites—nine in Bakersfield, two in Ventura and one in San Fernando—include full-service car washes, convenience stores and gas pumps at all the sites, and quick-lube services at seven of the sites and quick-service restaurants at two sites.

The centers range from 4,650 to 16,800 square feet. The gasoline stations sell national brands such as Union 76 and Chevron, with a number of other national brands, such as Circle K and Jiffy Lube Quick Lube, as part of the operations.

"The company is indeed selling its real estate in a sale-leaseback transaction," Greg Landry, managing director of Trefethen & Co., Scottsdale, Ariz., who serves as the investment banker for Whitewater Auto Care Center, told CSP Daily News. "But the operating company will remain in the hands of John Aminpour, who has long been the owner and operator and will continue to be the owner and operator of these locations."

The properties are all on 25-year triple-net leases and in locations that historically have attracted high investor demand and aggressive pricing, Glen Kunofsky, senior associate at New York-based Marcus & Millichap, told GlobeSt.com.

Kunofsky and Lior Regenstreif, senior vice president in Marcus & Millichap’s Encino office, are representing the seller.

Regenstreif said the 25-year triple-net leases are all new, having commenced in September. He said investors are likely to be drawn to the “very strong backing offered by both a corporate and personal guarantee from the tenant with a net worth well over $100 million.”

The seller is offering the properties to be acquired either individually or as a customized portfolio of three or more centers. Prices for individual stores range from $4.2 million for a 4,650-square-foot store on less than half an acre to $13.7 million for an 8,104-square-foot store on 1.26 acres (2007 net operating income: $943,032). Sphere: Related Content

VeriSign Seeking Sale Leaseback of Silicon Valley HQ

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - January 21, 2008

VeriSign Inc. has put its Mountain View corporate headquarters up for sale. According to offering documents, VeriSign will entertain several purchase options, including the sale of the entire campus to a single buyer or the sale of its "North Buildings," to one party and the sale of its "South Buildings" to another.

The North Buildings consist of a 32,500 square-foot data center, two matching office buildings with a total of just less than 100,000 square-feet and a four-story parking garage with 454 stalls, all on nearly 11 acres. The South Buildings consist of two office buildings with nearly 160,000 square feet on 10.6 acres.

The company intends to lease back the offices in the second pool for the next 10 years but is guaranteeing that it will occupy the data center only through March 2013 and the two office buildings in the same pool only through March 2010.

Because the site is close to light rail, the site could be expanded with an additional 173,000 square feet of new office development.

VeriSign acquired the property from Cupertino's Sobrato Development Cos. in the second half of 2001 for approximately $885 a square foot, the largest commercial real estate transaction in the preceding year. The sale brought Sobrato more than twice as much per square foot as the next-largest sale in that time frame, according to Business Journal research.

VeriSign is in the security-services business for both data and voice networks. Sphere: Related Content

Best Buy Leases 517,000 SF Distribution Center in NJ

CoStar Group - January 15, 2008

Consumer electronics and appliance retailer Best Buy has pre-leased a 517,000-square-foot distribution center being developed by Morris Cos. in the Amboy Corporate Center.

Best Buy will fully occupy the facility when construction completes in July. The property is located in Perth Amboy, NJ, south of the New Jersey Turnpike and just across the river from Staten Island. It broke ground in mid-2006 and includes 140 industrial trailer parking spaces.

Doug Bansbach of Colliers Houston represented Morris Cos. in the lease, and Mindy Lissner of CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant.

Amboy Corporate Center is slated to total more than 1.1 million square feet on about 64 acres. U.S. Foodservice has signed on to occupy more than 450,000 square feet at the center.

Best Buy operates more than 1,200 retail stores across the United States, Canada and China. Sphere: Related Content

Swedish Gov't Signs Build to Suit for $102 Million Detention Facility Near Stockholm

Skanska Web Site - January 9, 2008

Skanska will be responsible for a total solution, including planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the new detention facility in Sollentuna, north of Stockholm. The construction project is valued at an estimated SEK 650 M and is being included in order bookings for the first quarter.

A 25-year lease has been signed with Kriminalvården (Swedish Prison and Probation Service) for the new detention facility. The 23,600-square-meter facility will house 10 floors with 240 detention cells and an administration section.

Construction will be carried out by Skanska Sweden and begins in January 2008, with completion scheduled for spring 2010. The new detention facility will be located adjacent to the existing police station and the new Attunda courthouse, which is currently under construction by Skanska in a similar type of project.

In similar projects, Skanska has developed, built and been responsible for leasing of premises in Sweden to the police, the public prosecutor office and correctional authorities in Uppsala, Växjö, Flemingsberg and Malmö. Sphere: Related Content

Ponto Frio Completes $62 Million Sale Leaseback of Four Distribution Centers in Brazil

Gazeta Mercantil - January 9, 2008

Bracor real estate investment company bought four distribution centers (CDs) of Globex Utilidades - which controls the retail chain Ponto Frio - for R$109 million.

The operation was carried out through the sale-leaseback system, in which the owner sells the real estate and rents it by means of long-term contracts. In this case, the rent contract closed between Bracor and Globex has an initial term of 180 months or 15 years, renewable for the same period. The CDs purchased by Bracor are located in Guarulhos (São Paulo), Irajá (Rio de Janeiro), Brasília (Federal District) and Goiânia (Goiás).

'It is a trend that has been growing every year in Brazil,' observed Ricardo Betancourt, director of Colliers International no Brasil, a Canadian consulting company specialized in administering real estate properties. He noted the maturing among companies of the concept of focusing investments on primary activities and not immobilizing capital. 'In the United States and Europe, only 20% of companies own their own buildings. Here approximately 80% of them do,' he said.

Another indicator of the expanding practice is the length of the contract, 180 months, renewable for equal and successive periods. 'That's equivalent to 15 years. Until recently, contracts were not closed for periods of more than ten years,' said Betancourt. The stability of the economy has contributed positively to this trend. Sphere: Related Content

BVIC Group Signs EUR 80 Million Sale Leaseback of New Building in Athens

BVIC Group Web Site - January 9, 2008

BVIC Group is pleased to announce that a sale and leaseback agreement for €80 million was signed with Emporiki Leasing and ATE Leasing. The 20 year sale and leaseback agreement covers all of the lettable area, and common area, as well as the parking spaces of the development under construction at 340 Syggrou Avenue. Specifically, it covers 4,587sqm of office space, 9,185sqm of retail space and 2,133 sqm of storage space, as well as 400 parking spaces.

The Group has already signed a lease agreement with Media Markt for 81% of the retail space and 86% of the storage space. The total annual rental revenue for the space that has already been leased is € 2,340,000 for the first year leased. The remaining retail space is under negotiation and is expected to be let before the development is completed in July 2008. The completion of 340 Syggrou Avenue is expected to contribute circa €1.6 per share to our NAV, to be booked in Q3 2008.

This sale and leaseback agreement reaffirms BVIC’s strong ability to raise financing, as well as the confidence placed by major financial institutions in the quality of the Group’s projects, and the secure leasing agreements it obtains with blue chip tenants. Sphere: Related Content

Home Depot Enters $41 Million Sale Leaseback of Distribution Center in Virginia

The Winchester Star - January 12, 2008

The Home Depot Distribution Center at Eastgate Commerce Center has been sold to a private equity firm as part of 10-year lease-back agreement that will keep the massive warehouse operating in Frederick County for at least another decade.

Equity Industrial Winchester LLC and Equity Industrial Winchester LP, both based in Needham, Mass., bought the 842,000-square-foot warehousing facility for $41 million, according to Frederick County’s electronic property records.

Home Depot USA bought the 60-acre property at Eastgate Commerce Center, on U.S. 522 South and Tasker Road, in 2003 because of its proximity to the Virginia Inland Port in Warren County.

The port provides a central location to transfer goods to and from the Virginia Port Authority’s marine terminals in the Hampton Roads region to warehouses in Winchester, Front Royal, and beyond.

Anne Manning, senior manager of field communications for The Home Depot’s southern division, confirmed that the company entered into the lease-back agreement.

The building has 40-foot ceilings and about 350 truck bays. When it opened in January 2004, it featured a fitness room, training classrooms, showers, lockers, and a recreation with table games such as ping-ping and air hockey. Sphere: Related Content

Gambro AB Agrees to $62 Million Sale Leaseback of Properties in Germany

Trading Markets / Nordic Business Report - January 9, 2008

Swedish property company AB Sagax said on Wednesday (9 January) that it has signed a SEK395m property sales and lease-back agreement with the Swedish medical technology group Gambro AB.

The agreement, based on an option agreement initially announced in December 2007, covers Gambro's properties in Hechingen, Germany.

Sagax, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, acquires, develops and manages mainly warehouse and industrial properties. The company's property portfolio comprises 98 properties of a total of 742,000 square metres. Sagax is listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm. Sphere: Related Content

California Pacific Medical Center Signs 10 Year Lease For San Francisco Office Building

The Swig Company Web Site - January 9, 2008

A 171,000-sf office building here being vacated by Wells Fargo at the end of the month has been scooped up by the city’s largest hospital, California Pacific Medical Center, which signed a 10- year lease for the entire building. Built in the mid-1960s at 633 Folsom St. and renovated twice in the 1990s, the seven-story structure is owned by Swig Co., a locally based real estate company.

CPMC says it will begin moving some of its administrative operations into the building early this year. While the negotiated lease rate was not disclosed local industry sources tell GlobeSt.com that CPMC likely received a break from the asking lease rate of $45 per sf per year because it will occupy the space largely as is, saving the building owner the cost of tenant improvements, which are typically built into the asking rate. At $40 per sf, the value of the lease would be approximately $68 million.

The lease is related to CPMC’s effort to comply with state seismic requirements by 2013. A CPMC source tells GlobeSt.com that the lease will allow the hospital to consolidate a good portion of its administrative operations in a single building while also freeing up other locations for redevelopment. Sphere: Related Content

Ogilvy New York Signs Long Term Lease for 554,800 SF HQ Building in Manhattan

Ogilvy Web Site - January 9, 2008

Ogilvy New York will move its entire New York agency and New York-based operating units to 636 Eleventh Avenue in 2009. Ogilvy will occupy all of the 11-story, 554,800 sq. ft building that encompasses the entire eastern block on 11th Avenue between West 46th and West 47th Streets in a long term lease signed with owner, The Hakimian Organization and its partners Peykar Brothers Realty & Gorjian Properties.

The building will carry the "Ogilvy" name and offers unobstructed 360 degree window views of the Hudson River and Midtown Manhattan. Ogilvy has hired award winning architect, Gensler, to reconfigure and design the space according to the agency's specifications. The building will house all of Ogilvy's New York based companies and employees in one building, including Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, OgilvyOne, OgilvyInteractive, Neo@Ogilvy, OgilvyPR, OgilvyAction, the Brand Integration Group, RedWorks and Ogilvy Healthworld.

Ogilvy expects to move to the new space in the spring of 2009. The location is close to a long-proposed extension of the number seven New York Subway Line and several new developments including a luxury hotel by Kimpton.

The building at 636 Eleventh Avenue was built in 1913 and originally housed the Auerbach Chocolate factory. Ogilvy is calling its new space the "Candy Factory." It has high ceilings on the first floor, a courtyard and a roof-top terrace that Ogilvy plans to design as a garden space.

The agency will work with Gensler and other partners to bring the best energy efficient attributes to the space. "Sustainability is a key priority for Ogilvy," said Gunther Schumacher, Ogilvy's Chief Business Operations Officer. "We are working very closely with The Hakimian Organization to make the 'Candy Factory' a green building and get it LEED certified." Sphere: Related Content

Future Electronics Signs 10 Year Lease For New UK HQ

Property Week - January 8, 2007

Future Electronics, a global electronic company, has agreed terms to move its European headquarters to one of Staines’ most prominent office buildings. The company has taken the entire 68,000 sq ft Aura building, owned by GE in partnership with Steve Morgan and Trevor Silver’s Landid.

Future Electronics will pay £29/sq ft on a 10-year lease for the refurbished building following a two year search. The deal completed just before Christmas.

It is vacating its Colnbrook HQ. CB Richard Ellis acted for the landlord and Colliers CRE acted for Future Electronics. Sphere: Related Content

GE Energy Signs Long Term Lease for New HQ in Stamford

The Advocate - January 5, 2008

GE Energy Financial Services plans to move into the 275,000-square-foot former Xerox Corp. headquarters at 800 Long Ridge Road in Stamford about a year from now, the building's owner said yesterday.

Norwalk-based Building & Land Technology said GE Energy Financial Services will begin its 15-year lease in January 2009, when renovations are scheduled to be completed.

GE Energy Financial Services, the growing energy investment arm of Fairfield-based General Electric Co., will remain at 120 Long Ridge Road in Stamford for another year, Building & Land said.

The landlord and developer also owns the 300,000-square-foot office complex on 60 acres at 120 Long Ridge Road that formerly housed GE Commercial Finance, the parent unit of Energy Financial Services.

In October, Xerox relocated its headquarters and 330 employees from Stamford to a Building & Land-owned office structure at 45 Glover Ave. in Norwalk. Xerox, the world's largest copier company, had been in Stamford for 38 years. The company moved to Norwalk because it no longer needed a building of the size it had in Stamford, where it used to employ about 600 people.

An affiliate company of Building & Land Technology bought the Xerox property a year ago for $54.8 million. Sphere: Related Content

Nokia Siemens Networks Closes Sale Leaseback of Office Complex in Finland

Aberdeen Property Investors - January 4, 2008

Aberdeen Real Estate Fund Finland L.P. has acquired the Hatanpään valtatie 30 property in Tampere, Finland. The property was built in three phases between 1998 and 2000 with a total area of approximately 50,000 square metres. The transaction is structured as a sale and lease-back transaction involving the Fund, Nokia Siemens Networks and Nordea Finance Finland Ltd. Nokia Siemens Networks will continue to use the space as tenant. Sphere: Related Content

Ebrex France Enters EUR 30 Million Sale Leaseback of 13 Refrigerated Warehouses Across France

PropertyEU - January 4, 2008

French property company Fonciere LFPI has acquired a portfolio of 13 refrigeration warehouses across France from logistics provider Ebrex France for EUR 30 mln. The portfolio represents all of Ebrex's warehouses in France, and covers more than 42,000 m2 of logistics space built on an area of 248,000 m2. The transaction reflects a net initial yield of over 7%. Ebrex France is leasing back the assets on a 12-year lease contract.

The assets are located in the cities of Lyons, Le Mans, Orleans, Reims, Toulouse, Niort, St Lo, Clermont-Ferrand, St Pierre des Corps, Lorient, Bourges, Nantes, and Narbonne.

Atis Real Bruxelles and Immoeuropean acted as advisors in this transaction. Credit Foncier de France is providing the financing.

Ebrex France was created in May last year from the merger of DKTrans, a pan-European logistics provider, and the French food logistics provider Nexia Froid. Sphere: Related Content

AT&T Completes $275 Million Sale Leaseback of Chicago Office Tower

Crains Chicago Business News - January 2, 2007

A New Jersey real estate firm has purchased the 31-story West Loop office of AT&T Inc. for $275 million in a sale-leaseback deal.

Kushner Cos. closed on the purchase Friday of 225 W. Randolph St. from the San Antonio-based telecom giant, according to a source familiar with the matter. AT&T signed a 15-year lease for all the office space in the building, which is roughly 900,000 square feet.

The purchase marks the first in Chicago for Florham Park, N.J.-based Kushner, which was primarily a residential developer in the Northeast but is now buying office properties in major metropolitan markets nationwide after selling its residential business last year. The company financed the deal with $40 million in equity and a short-term temporary loan that it plans to replace with permanent financing possibly as soon as this week.

A Kushner executive declines to comment, and a spokesman for AT&T didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

AT&T hired the Chicago office of CB Richard Ellis Inc. to market the building in the summer. AT&T or a predecessor had owned the building since it was built in 1966. Sphere: Related Content

Banco Popular Completes $26 Million Sale leaseback of Five Bank Branches in New York City

CoStar Group - December 28, 2007

MLM Partners LLC has acquired a portfolio of five New York properties owned and occupied by financial services firm Banco Popular for a total of $26.25 million, or about $690 per square foot.

The properties are at 2927 3rd Ave. and 1046-50 Southern Blvd. in the Bronx, 162-66 E. 116th St. in Harlem, and 918 Seneca Ave. in Flushing. The deal also included a parking lot adjacent to the Flushing building, at 1734 Hancock St.

Banco Popular has leased back the facilities for a 20-year term. The Puerto Rico-based bank operates in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, and has approximately 46 branches in New York and New Jersey. Sphere: Related Content

Goodyear Agrees to 20 Year Lease on New Build-to-Suit HQ in Akron, OH

Site Selection Online - December 31, 2007

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Wednesday it plans to sell its headquarters to a firm that would redevelop the site and lease a new office to the nation's biggest tire maker. The tentative deal would keep Goodyear's corporate offices in the city where it was founded in 1898.

Goodyear's new 450,000-sq.-ft. (40,500-sq.-m.) world headquarters will be built by California developer Industrial Realty Group (IRG.) IRG, which has a history of remaking old industrial sites across the country, will buy the Goodyear property, build the new headquarters and lease it back.A

n estimated $700 million of private capital will go into the project, which is linked to an array of public incentives. The redevelopment plan will also include other office buildings, an industrial park, hotels, stores and restaurants, said Stuart Lichter, president and senior managing partner of IRG, based in Downey, Calif., near Los Angeles. State and local governments will provide an additional $200 million.

Goodyear seems set to stay in Akron for decades. The company will sign a 20-year lease with IRG on its new headquarters, followed by 11 five-year renewal options. (The financial terms of the lease haven't been made public.) In addition, the assistance that the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved, which is valued at about $30 million, includes a clawback provision that Goodyear must stay at the new location for 30 years. Sphere: Related Content

Flextronics Completes Sale Leaseback of 500,000 SF Industrial Complex in Silicon Valley

Commercial property News - December 28, 2007

Westcore Properties L.L.C. has snapped up a nine-structure manufacturing complex in Milpitas, Calif., owned by electronics manufacturing services provider Flextronics International USA Inc. Flextronics will stay put as the sole occupant of the buildings, which account for an aggregate 499,200 square feet of industrial space, under a 10-year lease agreement with the new owner.

Carrying addresses on Gibraltar Dr., the multi-structure complex occupies 33.5 acres in Silicon Valley's South 88 Corridor, less than nine miles from San Jose. Singapore-based Flextronics came into possession of the buildings, which average 15 years of age, when it acquired rival Solectron in a $3.6 billion deal earlier this year.

Westcore, which purchased the property through its Westcore Milpitas L.L.C. entity, relied on Bank of America for financing for the acquisition and turned to CPS/CORFAC International for representation in the deal; CPS/CORFAC also represented Flextronics. Specific terms of the sale and lease agreements have not been disclosed; however, the average asking rate for manufacturing space in Milpitas is $0.73 per-square-foot, triple-net, according to a third quarter report by real estate services firm NAI BT Commercial.

Flextronics' decision to leaseback the space as opposed to leasing elsewhere was a practical one, according to Dan Hollingsworth, senior vice president & principal with CPS/CORFAC. "These are nine individual buildings; that's a campus," Hollingsworth told CPN today. "To find a campus of 500,000 square feet--that you (typically) can't find." Sphere: Related Content

SEB Group Completes EUR 185 Million Sale Leaseback of 54 Properties in the Baltics

CNW Group - December 28, 2007

Homburg Invest Inc. announces that it has finalized its acquisition of the “Baltic” portfolio consisting of 54 properties located in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (the “Baltic’s”) from SEB Group (“SEB”). The transaction was previously announced on April 26, 2007, when SEB and Homburg Invest entered into an agreement to acquire the Baltic portfolio. Due to the exercise of pre-emptive rights by third parties for certain of the properties, the acquired portfolio consists of 54 properties instead of the original 63 properties previously announced. With respect to the properties, 39 are occupied by SEB under long-term leases and 15 properties are primarily leased to other tenants or have short-term leases with SEB.

The transaction was completed at an aggregate purchase price of approximately CAD 268,250,000 (EURO 185,000,000) with a long-term debt financing of CAD 194,100,000 (EURO 134,000,000) from SEB Merchant Bank with the remainder of the purchase price being paid in cash. Sphere: Related Content

Amazon.com Enters 1.6 Million SF Build-to-Suit for New Headquarters in Seattle

Cityfeet / GlobeSt - December 27, 2007

Amazon.com has inked a 1.6-million-sf headquarters deal with Vulcan Inc. and Schnitzer West. The deal calls for the online retailer to occupy 11 new buildings to be built on six blocks located immediately north of the Seattle CBD in the South Lake Union area.

Amazon.com expects to begin moving into its new office space in mid-2010, with full occupancy in 2011. The company said in an SEC filing that it will pay as much as $1.5 billion over 16 years to occupy the full 1.6 million sf, and that is also has options for additional space. An Amazon executive was not immediately available Thursday morning for further comment.

The developers are billionaire Paul Allen’s real estate investment arm Vulcan Inc., which controls some 60 blocks in the South lake Union area, and Schnitzer West, a partnership Schnitzer Investment Corp. of Portland, OR, and Dan Ivanoff of Seattle. To help seal the deal, the City of Seattle approved increased building heights in the immediate area and the developers agreed to contribute $6.4 million for affordable housing in the area.

Amazon.com’s new headquarters will be anchored by three 12-story, 160-foot high buildings on one-and-a-half blocks bounded by Terry and Boren avenues and John and Harrison streets. The buildings are known as Interurban Exchange II, IV and V.

Vulcan and Schnitzer West will jointly develop the buildings to a LEED Silver or Gold standard as the project’s first phase. The other eight buildings are slated to be developed exclusively by Vulcan. In addition to the office space, the buildings will hold about 100,000 sf of street-level space for restaurants and shops.

The company’s headquarters complex will be on the city’s new Streetcar line, which will connect to the city’s bus and light rail systems. Tim Halladay, vice president of real estate and finance operations at Amazon.com says proximity to public transit was an important factor in the selecting the location, as was the opportunity to enhance employee collaboration and productivity by consolidating employees on larger floor plates in fewer, adjacent buildings.

Amazon's current headquarters is located in a 16-story former hospital southeast of the Downtown core in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. It would vacate the hospital and several other leased locations around the city when it consolidates operations in the South Lake Union area. In total, the company reportedly occupies approximately 650,000 sf in the city. Sphere: Related Content

FBI Enters $100 Million Build-to-Suit For Denver HQ

CoStar Group - December 26, 2007

Alex S. Palmer & Co. has emerged as the winner of a $100 million contract with the General Services Administration (GSA) to develop a new office building in Denver for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The Nashville-based development group was awarded the contract after a more than six-month competition with national developers including Hines International, Opus Group, Highwoods Properties and CB Richard Ellis.

"A competitive procurement was conducted by GSA that included several other distinguished developers from across the country," GSA Contracting Officer Mark Pearce said in a statement.

Under current plans, Alex Palmer & Co. will develop a 216,322-square-foot office building with expansion rights up to 292,034 square feet, as well as an adjoining parking garage. The new facility will sit on a 10-acre FBI campus at the former site of the Denver Stapleton Airport. It is expected to achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The FBI has signed a 20-year lease with Alex Palmer & Co., which will own the building. Ground breaking is planned in the second quarter of 2008, with completion slated by the end of 2009.

The building is part of a broader effort to replace outdated FBI offices in several cities with state-of-the-art facilities. Its glass exterior and energy efficient design also signify another step toward more modern and eco-friendly government buildings.

Peter Ruggiero, a partner with Chicago-based Skidmore Owings & Merrill and the designer of 7 World Trade Center in Manhattan, will lead the design team for the project. Bovis Lend Lease will serve as lead contractor.

Alex Palmer & Co. has built other federal buildings in recent years including the Veterans Administration building in San Diego, a government office building for the County of Alameda in San Francisco, and the IRS building in Fresno, CA. Sphere: Related Content

Metro Completes EUR 243 Million Sale leaseback of 12 Hypermarkets in Germany

Property Week - December 23, 2007

Israeli investor Delek Real Estate has bought a chain of retail properties in Germany from retailer Metro for (£176m).

Delek Real Estate is carrying out the German purchase through its sub-subsidiary Delek Global Real Estate, which is listed on AIM. The company is also seeking a partner to take a 20% stake in the deal.

Delek Global is buying 12 hypermarkets located on the outskirts of towns, mainly in the Rhine-Main area around Frankfurt. Ten of the hypermarkets were formerly owned by Wal-Mart and converted into the Real format. Real is the largest hypermarket group in Germany.

The purchase is being financed by non recourse debt of E230m (£167m) and the rest in cash. The gross rental income is E16.05m (£11.6m) a year. Sphere: Related Content

Nippon Oil Agrees to $370 Million Sale Leaseback of Seven Buildings

Bloomberg - December 27, 2007

Nippon Oil Corp., Japan's biggest petroleum refiner, said it will sell and lease back all of its buildings for 42.3 billion yen ($370 million) as the company seeks to improve its balance sheet.

Tokyo-based Nippon Oil by the end of January will sell seven buildings, which will then be securitized, the company said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. Nippon Oil will take a gain of 10 billion yen from the sale for the year ending March 31. The company said it won't change its earnings forecast. Sphere: Related Content

Alimentation Couche-Tard Completes $131.4 Million Sale Leaseback of 83 Convenience Stores Across US

Alimentation Couche-Tard Web Site - December 21, 2007

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., Canada's leading convenience store operator with over 5,600 stores, announces that it has entered into, through its subsidiaries Circle K Stores Inc. and Mac’s Convenience Stores LLC., a sale and leaseback transaction with Cole Credit Property Trust II, Inc. relating to 83 properties sold for total gross selling price of US$131.4 million. The proceeds will be used for namely reduce Couche-Tard’s term revolving unsecured operating credit. Sold properties are located in several States and are subject to leases agreements with an initial average term of 20 years to which are attached renewal options for an additional 45 years.

“I am very satisfied with this transaction which is part of our long term financing plan and improves our short term financial leverage”, indicated Richard Fortin, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. Sphere: Related Content

Foster's Completes $41 Million Sale Leaseback of Property Portfolio in Melbourne

The Sydney Morning Herald - December 21, 2007

Charter Hall announces that its managed fund DPF, has acquired in joint venture with the Perth based Wyllie Group, a $41 million portfolio of properties located within the inner city Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford.

The publicly listed Fosters Group has leased back the portfolio of 10 properties for 10 + 5+ 5 year periods. The properties are located adjacent to or nearby to the Fosters Abbotsford Brewery and the adjoining Yarra River. The buildings are predominantly used for offices, visitors and display centre together with open car parks used to accommodate staff working at the brewery.

“Abbotsford continues to be gentrified and we believe the long term outlook for these investments will provide both capital growth and secure, growing income returns with the benefit of 3.75% per annum rental increases” according to Charter Hall’s Joint Managing Director, David Harrison. The properties were secured on an initial yield of 7.12% and comprise a total of 20,000m2 of land area and a combined lettable area of buildings that are developed of approx 12,000m2.

The properties will be owned by a jointly owned trust managed by Charter Hall which intends to hold the assets over the medium to long term and may look to expand its jointly owned property holdings.

Colliers agents John Marasco and Nick Rathgeber negotiated the sale. Sphere: Related Content

Mannesmann Plastics Machinery GmbH Completes €113 Million Sale Leaseback of Three Facilities in Germany

SEGRO Web Site - December 21, 2007

SEGRO has agreed a sale and leaseback with MPM (Mannesmann Plastics Machinery) on three industrial sites in Germany, at Munich, Nuremberg and Hanover. The leaseback is for a minimum term of 15 years and the transaction represents a net initial yield of 7.1%, this yield will increase with indexation. The value of the Munich site is approximately two thirds of this portfolio and marks SEGRO’s first move into this target market.

MPM is leading in the production of machines for the plastics and rubber compounding and processing industries. The company was split out of Mannesmann following its purchase by Vodafone in 2000.

The Munich site comprises 130,649 sq m of production / logistics space and 23,488 sq m of offices on 24.1 ha of land and is made up of a campus of high quality construction workspace units. This high potential site is well located to the northwest of the city within the motorway ring and within easy access of an important S-Bahn train station link. Part of the site, about 30,000 sq m, is sublet to a third party on a lease. As well as providing 15 years of secured income at an attractive yield SEGRO will be able to generate additional returns by building out parts of the site for future occupation by MPM. As well as opportunities on the site sublet to a third party when their lease expires, SEGRO will potentially be able with MPM to secure commercial zoning rights for adjoining land.

The sites at Hanover and Nuremberg respectively comprise 28,772 sq m of built area on 7.3ha of land and 31,669 sq m of built area on 5.1 ha of land. Both sites are in attractive suburban locations and will become part of SEGRO’s portfolio of trading properties.

(Note: In March of the year, MPM completed a simmilar sale leaseback transaction involving three facilities in the US.) Sphere: Related Content

Accor Agrees to €518 Million Sale Leaseback of 57 Hotels in France and Switzerland

Accor Web Site - December 20, 2007

As part of its real estate management strategy, Accor has announced the signature of a memorandum of understanding to sell 47 hotels in France and 10 in Switzerland to a Real Estate Consortium including Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and two investment funds managed by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (European Hotel Venture & Alternative Property Income Venture). The Novotel, Mercure, Ibis, All Seasons and Etap Hotel properties involved in the transaction represent a total of 8,200 rooms.

The €518-million transaction includes a €52-million renovation program at the new owner’s expense. On top of this amount, extensions to two of the existing properties will be financed by the owner for a total of €30 million. Accor will continue to operate the hotels under the same brands through 12-year variable leases, whose rents are based on an average 16% of revenue a year with no guaranteed minimum. The leases are renewable six times, for a total of 84 years. Based on estimated 2007 revenue, the variable rent would amount to €29.6 million (a 5.71% cap rate), net of €3.7 million in insurance costs, property taxes and structural maintenance capex, which are now at the owner’s expense.

This transaction is part of the € 1.9 billion asset disposal program as presented by the Group in September 2007. Accor continues to deploy its innovative asset management strategy designed to both reduce earnings volatility and emphasize the focus on hotel operations.

From a financial standpoint, this transaction will enable Accor to reduce its adjusted net debt by approximately €350 million in 2008, of which € 300 million of cash impact, and will add around €5 million to 2008 profit before tax. Sphere: Related Content

Daimler Agrees to Sale Leaseback of Office Space at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin

Daimler Web Site - December 14

Stuttgart, December 14, 2007 - Daimler (stock-exchange abbreviation DAI) has sold the “Quartier Potsdamer Platz” to SEB Asset Management, based in Frankfurt am Main. The complex comprises a total of 500,000 square meters of floor space above and below ground with 19 buildings. 42% of the property is high-quality office space, 22% is used for retail purposes, and the rest consists of apartments, hotels, entertainment and catering facilities. Half of the office space at Potsdamer Platz will continue to be used by the Daimler Group on a long-term basis. The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Dr. Ruediger Grube, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG for Corporate Development and Real Estate, stated, “We are delighted that with SEB Asset Management we have found an investor with a long-term orientation that will continue to develop and enhance one of the most attractive sites in Europe”.

The transaction is subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities. The sale is part of the ongoing measures being taken to optimize the Group’s portfolio with the goal of focusing on the core business and improving value added.

(Spiegel reports that the sale price for the entire complex was was around €1.2 billion.) Sphere: Related Content

Station Casinos Completes $70.3 Million Sale Leaseback of Las Vegas HQ

Las Vegas Business Press - December 14, 2007

The Cole Cos. recently acquired Station Casinos' corporate headquarters in a purchase-leaseback transaction. The Phoenix-based firm paid $70.3 million, or $507 per square foot, for the three-level Class A office building at 1011 S. Pavilion Center Dr. in Summerlin. The 138,558 square-foot structure, designed by Gensler of Nevada, rests on three acres adjacent to the Red Rock Casino Resort.

Station Casinos signed a 20-year, triple-net lease to occupy the building. Rental rates were not disclosed. The new glass, steel and stone structure cost $64.2 million to construct earlier this year, with occupancy starting in September. The sale gives the locals gaming company a much needed cash infusion after going private in an $8.9 billion transaction last month.

Las Vegas employers are on track to add 11,200 positions this year for a 1.2 percent overall job growth. Class A space, meanwhile, had the lowest vacancy rate of all local office products in the third quarter, reports Applied Analysis, a local economic advisory firm. It also commanded the highest rents at $2.86 per square-foot or 48 cents more than valley-wide average.

"The valley's west submarket had only seven Class A office buildings in the third quarter, totaling less than a million square feet," said Brian Gordon, principal of Applied Analysis. "It has created a pent-up demand for that area resulting in a low 4.1 vacancy rate." Sphere: Related Content

Orior Completes EUR 61 Million Sale Leaseback of Swiss Real Estate Portfolio

PRNewswire - December 13, 2007

ThreadGreen Partners LLP today announced the sale and subsequent leaseback of the real estate portfolio of Orior Ltd, comprising six commercial properties spread across Switzerland, to ThreadGreen Industrial Limited. The properties, with overall usable area totalling approximately 68,221 squared metres of office, distribution, production and cold storage space, were sold for CHF 103 million (approximately EUR 61.6 million) to the Guernsey Fund.

Orior is the largest independent convenience food company in Switzerland with leading market shares in all segments of its product offerings. The Company dates back to 1929.

The Facilities comprise substantially all of the manufacturing operations of the Company and the majority of the Company's revenue is generated from the Assets. Furthermore, the Company has invested over CHF 200 million in the maintenance and modification of the assets over the past ten years. The assets are in good condition and considered of strategic importance to the industry which Orior serves. Given its strong market position, it is expected that the Company will continue to realize historical levels of profitability moving forward. Sphere: Related Content

Miro Radici Completes €55.5m Million Sale Leaseback of 13 Property Portfolio in Germany

Property Week - December 6, 2007

Sellar Property Group has completed a sale and leaseback purchase of a 13-strong German portfolio for €55.5m (£40m).

The properties, which total 700,000 sq ft over 40 acres of land in the Ruhr Valley were purchased from an undisclosed seller. They are let to Italian-based textile company Miro Radici Group on 12 year leases, generating an annual rent of €4m (£2.8m).

The purchase brings Seller’s investment in German investments to approximately €130m (£93.7m), taking it closer to its target of €250m (£180m) within the next 12 months. Sphere: Related Content

CVS Caremark Nearing $600 Million Sale leaseback of 163 Drug Stores in 29 US States

Moody's Investors Service Web Site - December 7, 2007

Based on information received through December 5, Moody's Investors Service assigns a provisional (P) Baa2 rating to $593.1 million of CVS Caremark Lease-Backed Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2007, to be issued by a trust that will acquire 163 first-priority lien commercial mortgage, credit-tenant lease loans. The loans will be secured by newly constructed and existing drug stores and related realty that will be triple-net leased to subsidiaries of CVS Caremark Corporation. Each of the leases will be bondable and guaranteed by CVS Caremark Corporation, and bankruptcy-remote, special purpose borrowers will own each of the fee or ground-leased properties. The loans mature in January 2030. Fixed net rent under the leases, plus a pre-funded interest reserve, will be sufficient to pay in full all interest and principal of the loans. The 163 drugstores are located in 29 states.

Moody's determined that, among other factors, the dark value of the collateral is sufficient, assuming a bankruptcy of CVS Caremark and rejection of leases, to support the expected loss consistent with the Certificates' rating. The rating of the Certificates is primarily based on the senior unsecured debt rating of CVS Caremark Corporation, which is currently Baa2, stable outlook; therefore, the Certificates' rating will change as the senior unsecured debt rating of CVS Caremark Corporation may change. The rating of the Certificates was also based on the overall structure and legal integrity of the transaction. Sphere: Related Content

DnB NOR Bank ASA Agrees to $650 Million Sale leaseback of 22 Bank Buildings in Norway

DnB NOR Bank ASA Web Site - December 7, 2007

DnB NOR Bank ASA has entered into agreements on the sale of a further 22 bank buildings, thus concluding the sale of the bank's own commercial property portfolio announced in the spring.

The total sales price for the 22 buildings is NOK 3.6 billion ($650 million.) This will give the bank a gain of more than NOK 1.4 billion before tax. As several of the properties in the portfolio are owned by companies, the tax charge will be relatively low. The buildings were sold with an average yield of 5.62 per cent.

"We are very satisfied with both the price obtained and with the buyers. The latter is important as we have entered into long-term lease agreements for the sold properties," says Bjørn Berg, chief investment officer in DnB NOR, who has managed the sales process on behalf of the bank. He adds that the new lease agreements have a duration of between seven and ten years. The agreements will imply no significant changes in the bank's operating expenses over the coming years.

Oslo Pensjonsforsikring has bought 18 of the properties, Sparebankstiftelsen DnB NOR (the Savings Bank Foundation) has bought two properties, Odfjell Eiendom AS bought one property and Petter Myhre and Mohsen Shahabi bought one property.

The bank's first property sale in 2007 was DnB NOR's head office at Aker Brygge in Oslo, which was sold to the property company Norwegian Property ASA for just over NOK 1.7 billion during the summer.

DnB NOR Næringsmegling AS and Catella Corporate Finance AB (Stockholm) have been advisers for DnB NOR Bank and acted as brokers throughout the sales process. Sphere: Related Content

CNL Income Properties Agrees to $301 Million Sale Leaseback of 28 Golf Course Properties

SEC Edgar Database - December 6, 2007

We entered into an asset purchase agreement on October 29, 2007 committing to acquire 28 golf course properties from American Golf Corporation and certain of its affiliates (collectively “AGC”) for a purchase price of $301.0 million. On November 30, 2007, we completed the acquisition of 22 of those golf course properties for a purchase price of $244.0 million.

We leased our interests in these properties on a long-term, triple-net basis to Evergreen Alliance Golf Limited, L.P. (“EAGLE”) to operate on our behalf. The leases have a 20-year initial term, with four 5-year renewal options and are cross-defaulted with each other and with the 15 other leases for our golf course properties that are operated by EAGLE. The minimum aggregate annual rent for the properties is approximately $20.7 million in the initial year (i.e. an 8.5% cap rate.)

We have agreed to acquire the remaining six properties, all of which are leasehold interests, by April 17, 2008. Sphere: Related Content

Santander Receives Bid of EUR 1.7 Billion for HQ in Spain

Forbes / Thomson Financial - December 3, 2007

Banco Santander SA has received offers of more than 1.7 bln eur from JP Morgan and Metrovacesa for its Boadilla del Monte headquarters, El Economista reported, citing unnamed sector sources.

Santander could book 1 bln eur in capital gains from the operation, the newspaper said, noting that the sale is set to be closed before Dec 20.

Santander would enter into a 30-year lease-back contract of the property while retaining its right to repurchase, it added. Sphere: Related Content

Billia Planning $85.5 Million Sale Leasback of Two Property Portfolios in Denmark and Sweden

Billia Web Site - December 3, 2007

In January, Bilia, the leading Nordic car dealer and service provider in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, will be presenting a prospectus relating to the sale of real estate in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Mälardalen, Sweden. The sales process is expected to be complete at the end of the first quarter of 2008.

The sale of the real estate in Denmark is dependent on Bilia utilising the option it obtained in 2005 in connection with the Scaniadam deal to acquire the A/S Selandia Ejendomsselskab real estate company. The book value of the Danish holdings is estimated after the acquisition at approximately SEK 300 M.

The acquisition of the Hans Persson Group included real estate holdings and the plan now is to dispose of these holdings by selling Hans Persson Fastighets AB. The book value of these real estate holdings is approximately SEK 250 M. Bilia will be signing long-term rental agreements for most of this real estate. In Bilia’s view, the sale will result in a not insignificant capital gain.

Bilia has commissioned the services of Catella Corporate Finance as an adviser to complete the sale.

Bilia, headquartered in Sweden, has 3,500 employees and an annual turnover of SEK13.5bn. Bilia is listed on the Nordic Exchange in Stockholm. Sphere: Related Content

Citigroup Agrees to $1.575 Billion Sale Leaseback of Manhattan Office Towers

Reuters - December 3, 2007

Office property owner SL Green Realty Corp (SLG.N) has reached an agreement to buy Citigroup Inc's (C.N) downtown office complex for $1.575 billion, a source familiar with the deal said on Monday, underscoring the health of the Manhattan property market, despite turmoil in the lending markets. Canadian real estate investment firm SITQ also will take a 47.5 percent stake in the complex at 388-390 Greenwich St. when it closes later this month, said SL Green, which will retain a 52.5 percent stake. The two buildings total 2.6 million square foot, translating the deal's price to $598 per square foot, SL Green said.

The flow of securitized loans used to finance much of the debt-heavy purchases of U.S. buildings or to develop property has slowed to a trickle of what it was just six months ago. Fears stemming from from the troubles of the U.S. housing market, crossed over to the commercial market, chasing buyers of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) out to the sidelines. Sales of buildings, such as the Citigroup building, demonstrates that other lenders, such as European banks have been willing in many cases to step in and fill in part of the void left by the stoic CMBS market. It also highlights the change in real estate buyers, from individuals using loads of securitized debt to real estate investment trusts, such as SL Green and pension funds, which use more cash and other sources of debt financing.

Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank AG, the real estate lending arm of German lender WestLB AG (WDLGgb.F), and PB Capital Corp., the commercial real estate financial arm of Deutsche Postbank AG (DPBGn.DE), provided the mortgage financing, SL Green said.

The deal calls for the tenant to lease back the building and cover the costs of operating and maintaining it for 13 years, SL Green said. The complex houses Citigroup's investment banking arm. Over that period, Citigroup also will to vacate the building in stages, which will leave SL Green as a low-cost provider of office space downtown and an alternative to the World Trade Center, Fasulo said.

Citigroup declined to comment on the pending sale. A representative from SL Green was not available for further comment, nor was one available from Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick-Goldman, which arranged the financing. The initial rental rate reflect a first-year return of 6.3 percent, SL Green said. Sphere: Related Content

CIMB Mulling Sale Leaseback of Retail Bank Branch Portfolio in Malasia

Business Times - December 3, 2007

CIMB Group, Malaysia's biggest investment bank. is mulling a third sale and leaseback exercise on some buildings that house its operation and bank branches as part of its plan to manage capital more efficiently, its chief said.

Group chief executive Datuk Nazir Razak said it has done two such exercises to its current head office Bangunan CIMB, and Menara Bumiputra-Commerce, its new retail banking headquarters on Jalan Raja Laut which is still under construction.

"We still own a lot of branches, the Jalan Tun Perak building (which houses the retail banking operation now), Menara SBB. It could be a third sale and leaseback exercise involving the rest of the portfolio," he said yesterday.

"We have embarked on it and done two buildings, there is most likely to be a third portfolio, where we will put the other buildings inside," Nazir added.

He said modern banks of today should not engage in other things such as building ownership and management. Lenders are better off renting the buildings, release the capital and plough it back to the business. By selling and renting back Menara Bumiputra-Commerce for example, the bank will have the capital to write RM3.6 billion in new loans, he said. Sphere: Related Content

Hafslund Enters $125.7 Million Sale Leaseback of 34 Properties Throughout Norway

Hafslund Web Site - December 3, 2007

Hafslund, Norway's largest power distribution utility, has sold 100 percent of the shares in the company Hatros II AS to the Oslo Pensjons Forsikring AS, for a total of NOK 728 million, equivalent to a property value of NOK 694 million. The company is a single purpose company with 34 properties in Oslo and Akershus. The properties mainly consist of transformer stations with surrounding areas.

Hafslund Nett AS will lease back the main part of the properties for a period of 15 years, with an option for extension, and will be responsible for the technical and building related maintenance of the properties during the period.

The sale gives an accounting profit before tax of about NOK 500 million. Sphere: Related Content

CIMB Group Agrees to $137 Million Sale Leaseback of New HQ Tower in Kuala Lumpur

CIMB Group Web Site - December 3, 2007

CIMB Group today entered into agreements with Pelaburan Hartanah Bumiputera Berhad (PHBB) for the sale and leaseback of Menara Bumiputra-Commerce, the Group's new retail banking headquarters on Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur.

Under the sale and purchase agreement, Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd (BCHB), the listed owner of CIMB Group, will sell the 39-storey building to PHBB for RM460 million or RM730 per square foot. CIMB Bank Berhad will then lease the building from PHBB for an initial period of ten years.

In his speech at the launch, Dato' Mohd Shukri, Executive Director of BCHB, said that the Group decided to build Menara Bumiputra-Commerce three years ago to house its scattered retail banking operations in one location. He also noted that the Group would not be making effective use of its capital if it owned its buildings. "As a banking and financial services group, CIMB Group's strategy is to be asset-light, and employ our capital efficiently towards the core business," he explained.

Dato' Shukri said that the Group was pleased to have PHBB as a partner and was confident that PHBB will be a "buy and hold" investor. He added: "This is also an opportunity for CIMB to form a long-term relationship with PHBB, and to explore areas in which we can create synergies through working with each other."

Menara Bumiputra-Commerce is being constructed by IJM Corporation Bhd and is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. Sphere: Related Content

Arcandor Nearing $1.18 Billion Sale Leaseback of of Property Portfolio

Wall Street Journal - December 1, 2007

The real-estate investment arm of Deutsche Bank AG and Pirelli Real Estate are close to acquiring a property portfolio from Arcandor AG, a German mail-order and department-store company, for €800 million ($1.18 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.

The deal with Deutsche Bank's Rreef and Pirelli Real Estate, in which tire maker and broadband-services company Pirelli & C. SpA owns a 52% stake, is expected to be announced early next week.

Arcandor's head of communications, Jörg Howe, confirmed the company is in the "final stages of negotiations" to sell a portfolio that includes 85 Karstadt stores -- including Europe's biggest department store, Berlin's KaDeWe -- as well as 12 Karstadt Sport stores and some offices. As part of the deal, Rreef and Pirelli Real Estate may acquire a minority stake in Arcandor's retail business, according to people familiar with the deal.

Karstadt, Arcandor's department-store division, will lease back the buildings on 15-year leases, with an option to extend the leases by an additional 15 years, Mr. Howe said. Rreef and Pirelli Real Estate declined to comment.

"Arcandor's properties are prime retail properties in good locations, so they would be very popular with investors," said Gerhard Kemper, managing director of Kemper's Deutschland GmbH, a real-estate agency specializing in retail property, in which Cushman & Wakefield Inc. owns a stake. "This will be the biggest retail sale of this kind this year in Germany and I think it will send a signal to the market that big deals are possible, even in the current climate," he added. Sphere: Related Content

Clearstream Agrees to €350 Million Sale Leaseback of HQ in Luxembourg

Clearstream Web Site - November 28, 2007

Clearstream International S.A., Deutsche Börse Group’s securities settlement and custody provider, is to sell its headquarters in Luxembourg for € 350 million to the real estate company IVG Immobilien AG, Bonn. A corresponding contract was signed today. At the same time of the sale, Clearstream entered into a lease agreement with the owner of the buildings.

The Luxembourg buildings are the only properties actually owned by Deutsche Börse Group, which rents all of its remaining office space. The sale and leaseback will allow the company to benefit from the very positive current market environment for commercial real estate in Luxembourg.

All four buildings in "The Square" complex in the Kirchberg area of Luxembourg City are to be sold; the lease agreement only applies to the two buildings used by Clearstream itself. The sale price is considerably higher than the book value of around € 230 million. Deutsche Börse AG will receive the book profit over the course of 2008 via dividend payments from Clearstream. The transaction is expected to be concluded by the end of the year, and still requires approval by the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Börse AG.

The sale will be conducted via the disposal of four companies whose assets consist of the office buildings rented to Clearstream and third parties. The lease agreement between Clearstream and the related real estate companies who own the buildings has a 10-year term with two 5-year extension options. Sphere: Related Content

AIB Agrees to EUR 30 Million Sale Leaseback of Bank Branch Portfolio in Ireland

Irish Independent - November 28, 2007

A private investor has agreed to acquire a portfolio of AIB properties in Munster in a major sale and leaseback transaction.

AIB had brought the 12 properties to the market last month, seeking offers of around €35m through Savills Hamilton Osborne King. But the ultimate agreement is believed to be significantly below this level.

Nevertheless the sale will provide a boost for the investment market, where deals have slowed since the credit crunch. However, the slowdown is believed to have taken its toll and the deal eventually may have been closer to €30m.

The original guide price indicated a net initial yield of approximately 4.25pc. But experts believe the yield was pushed out towards 4.5pc and maybe even beyond as bidders struck a harder bargain than similar transactions before.

AIB's Munster portfolio includes branches in strategic locations in towns such as Ennis and Limerick. Each property will be let to AIB with guarantees on a 20-year FRI lease with upward-only rent reviews every five years. The tenant has a break option in year 15.

Total initial income for the portfolio is €1,664,000, with individual properties generating rents of between €77,500 and €415,000.

The major banks have capitalised on their property portfolios, through lucrative sale and leaseback deals. However the credit crunch and higher interest rates have slowed investment activity across the board.

The strong AIB covenant nevertheless makes the Munster portfolio a cut above most regional properties, even though some might be considered less 'prime' than those snapped up in previous bank disposals over the past year.

The identity of the buyer is a closely guarded secret. But only investors with proven credentials are able to raise funds on the scale required to secure such a large deal in the current, more exacting financial environment.

The Munster portfolio has a total net internal lettable area of around 7,148sqm. Sphere: Related Content

Santander Agrees to EUR 2.04 Billion Sale Leaseback of 1,173 Bank Owned Properties Throughout Spain

Property Week - November 22, 2007

UK pension fund manager Pearl Group is set to complete the biggest European real estate deal of the year with the E2bn (£1.4bn) purchase of more than a thousand properties owned by Spanish bank Santander, the largest bank in the euro zone by market value.

Pearl, led by entrepreneur Hugh Osmond has entered into an exclusivity period to buy Lot 5 – a portfolio of 1,173 properties, consisting predominantly of high-street banks. The portfolio generates a yearly rental income of approximately E101m (£72m), reflecting a yield of about 5%.

The portfolio forms the largest of five property packages placed on the market by the bank in the summer to help fund its joint bid with Bank of Scotland and Fortis for Dutch bank ABN Amro. The total value placed on all-five lots was E4bn (£2.87bn).

The lots initially received numerous bids over the course of the sale process, including bids for the entire portfolio, however the credit crunch reduced bidding numbers considerably and by October those bidding on all the properties either reduced their bids or joined forces opting to cherry-pick preferred assets.

The sale will be warmly received by a European investment market that has seen little in the way of large transactions, particularly since the liquidity crisis. A sale means that Santander will be left with Lot 1 - the bank’s headquarter scheme on the outskirts of Madrid – left to sell.

Last month, Zara-owner Pontegadea agreed to pay E500m (£359m) for Lots 2-4 which consists of 11 large commercial properties across nine cities. The deal is said to have reflected a yield of less than 5%. The sale will reportedly generate a capital gain of EUR 860 million.

None of the parties involved in sale would comment. Sphere: Related Content

Kia Motors Considering $268.7 Million Sale Leaseback of Production Assets

Reuters - November 24, 2007

Kia Motors Corp (000270.KS), South Korea's No. 2 carmaker, plans to sell some domestic and overseas production lines and lease them back in the first half of next year in a deal that could fetch up to 250 billion won ($268.7 million), a Korean newspaper said on Saturday.

"To improve financial soundness, (the company) is seeking to sell part of Kia Motors' assets, including production lines, to a leasing company and secure cash," the Chosun Ilbo daily quoted an unnamed senior official at the automaker as saying.

Kia Motors could not immediately be reached for comment.

The report added GE Capital, a financial unit of U.S company General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), was the most likely buyer of the assets.

In October, Kia, an affiliate of top South Korean auto company Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS: Quote, Profile, Research), had posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly net loss due to weaker sales and said it would miss its 2007 operating profit target as costs swelled.

Kia, which has factories in China and Slovakia, is building a $1 billion plant in the United States. ($1=930.3 Won) Sphere: Related Content

Sainsbury Completes $78.5 Million Sale Leaseback of Two UK Regional Distribution Centers

Property Week - November 23, 2007

Sainsbury’s has sold the second of four distribution depots it put up for sale earlier this year, completing two deals in two weeks which represent 1m sq ft in floorspace and just under £80m.

Canada Life has paid £40m to buy the 560,000 sq ft shed at Radial Park in Stoke on Trent. Sainsbury’s has taken a 25-year lease on the property at a net initial yield of 5.65%, again with RPI-linked rent reviews.

The other sale-and-leaseback, signed last week, was to BAE Systems Pension Scheme, which has bought the 425,000 sq ft warehouse in Tamworth for £38.5m and leased it back to the supermarket on a 30-year lease at a net initial yield of 5.5% with RPI- linked rent reviews.

The other two warehouses, in Hams Hall in the West Midlands and Haydock in Merseyside, are still on the market but interest is thought to be strong.

Peter Winfield, head of business space investment at Cushman & Wakefield which acts for Sainsburys, said: "These deals clearly demonstrate that there is institutional demand for high quality property in the current market which reflects the most challenging trading conditions in recent years."

Kitchen La Frenais Morgan acted for BAE, and Atisreal acted for Canada Life. Sphere: Related Content

Royal Bank of Scotland Awards $1.7 Billion Sale Leaseback of 63 Properties

Financial Times - November 23 2007

Royal Bank of Scotland has found a buyer for an £800m ($1.7bn, €1.1bn) portfolio of 63 properties. The price is about 10 per cent lower than originally expected but indicates that real estate deals are possible in spite of the credit squeeze. The preferred bidder on the RBS portfolio is understood to be Prudential, the insurer, which has joined forces with William Pears, a private family-run investment group.

The sale and leaseback agreement comes after several other property deals have been abandoned in recent weeks, including the attempted sale of Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield by British Land. But the price of the assets has been cut to £800m from an initial asking price closer to £900m in a sign of the weakening market.

William Pears and Prudential beat competition in the final round from Nick Leslau, the private property entrepreneur, working with HBOS. Other interested bidders had included Moorfield and Delancey, both private companies.

The 63 properties cover 2.1m sq ft and produce about £47m of annual rent, making a yield of 5.5 per cent. They include the Strand head office of Coutts, one of RBS’s private banking operations, and other branches including 1 Princes Street in Edinburgh and 28 Cavendish Square in London’s West End. RBS was advised by Cushman & Wakefield. The Scottish bank had put the portfolio up for sale to help raise money for the joint takeover of ABN Amro, the Dutch bank. Sphere: Related Content

Microsoft Signs Long Term Lease for $500 Million Data Center Near Chicago

Cityfeet / GlobeSt.com - November 9, 2007

Microsoft Corp. has signed a 15-year lease for a 550,000-sf data center at 601 Northwest Ave. The data center is being developed by a partnership of information technology company Ascent Corp., based in St. Louis, and property management company Koman Group, based in Creve Coeur, MO. The estimated cost of the project is $500 million.

The two-story building will be constructed on a 14-acre site near Interstate 294 and Interstate 290. The joint venture had acquired the slightly more than 14 acres and planned to construct a speculative building between 430,000 sf and 475,000 sf, says Phil Horstmann, president and CEO of Ascent. “Our original vision for the project was a purpose-building, speculative, multi-tenant data center,” Horstmann says. Microsoft’s lease rate was not disclosed but Jones Lang LaSalle had been marketing the building with an asking lease rate of $36 per sf, triple net.

The building was expected to have at least 200,000 sf with a raised floor and have 21-foot ceilings. The building was expected to have 40 megawatts of power with the ability to expand to 60 megawatts and, with working on the plans for the building with Microsoft, “The capacity has grown,” he says. The joint venture will also have its own power substation on the property.

The building is expected to be completed in the spring and open in April, according to a press release from Microsoft. The building will house “tens of thousands of servers providing information and web-based applications to Internet users worldwide,” according to the press release. Sphere: Related Content

Sodexho's New HQ in Paris Sold for €100 Million

King Sturge Web Site - November 19, 2007

On behalf of Custom House Capital, King Sturge, Paris and Knight Frank Ganly Walters, Dublin have purchased from Sefri-Cime and AXA REIM two office buildings, Panorama Seine and Dockside near Paris in Issy-Les-Moulineaux for more than €100 million.

Sodexho will be occupying both buildings on a 12 year lease and this will become their International Headquarters.

Panorama Seine comprises 7,893m² (84,959ft²) with 71 car parking spaces, due to complete in February 2008. Dockside comprises 2,128m² (22,906ft²) with 27 car parking spaces due to complete in April 2008.

Simmons & Simmons and Le Breton & Associés acted on behalf of Custom House. Sefri-Cime was advised by Pardieu Brocas Mafféi and Wagny Katz. The financing was done by Aareal Bank, who were advised by notaries Allez & Associés. Sphere: Related Content