A building that is at the centre of a high court legal dispute after a sale was aborted last year has found a new buyer.
Active Asset Investment Management (aAIM), the property investor and fund manager run by city financier Mark Tagliaferri and property entrepreneurs Robert Whitton and Stuart Le Gassick, has sold its 89,000 sq ft AMS House in Frimley, Surrey, to a private Far Eastern syndicate for £50.5m – a 5% yield.
A previous sale to Forth Property, an overseas client of broker Mutual Finance, was aborted after the purchaser accused aAIM of misleading it over a “swap agreement” that intended to prevent rent review levels for the leased offices being swayed by the retail price index.
In November, it launched a misrepresentation lawsuit against aAIM.
It claims that, although the agreement devalued the offices by £1.6m, aAIM had implied it had a positive value during negotiations.
It is suing aAIM for the return of the deposit and £200,000 in costs.The dispute is ongoing.
aAim bought the property, which is let to British Aerospace on a 25-year lease, for £40m in July 2004.
Whitton said the sale and the refinancing of its assets had put aAim’s average returns to investors at more than 80% IRR since its launch.
Drivers Jonas advised aAIM; the purchaser was unrepresented.
