Pricoa Property Private Equity, the merchant banking division of the US fund manager, has bought a Belgium property company in its first Continental purchase.
PPPE has paid €91m for Banimmo, Belgium’s 7th largest property company, from Axa Bank. The company has a portfolio value of €280m and owns 53 properties in Belgium and Luxembourg.
The deal is also the first for the Jonathan Short who took over as managing director of PPPE following Richard Mully’s departure to Soros Real Estate Partners.
Short said the company was attracted to Banimmo’s management and the prospects for the Belgium market: “It is one of very few opportunities to come up in Belgium for real estate operating companies. We have know the management for some time and it is one of the best regarded in the market. We also like the fundamentals of the Belgium market.”
Banimmo’s portfolio comprises 60% offices, 25 % retail, 12% hotels and 3% industrial property. Yields from the portfolio average 9%.
Short said it is likely that one third of the portfolio will be sold, one third refurbished and one third held. The mix of the portfolio might also change with the hotel element likely to be sold. Short said there is also potential to increase the retail component as planning consent is hard to secure in Belgium.
In 1999, PPPE bought a 29% stake in storage company the Big Yellow Group, took UK company Hemingway private. The company also bought business park developer Arlington Securities.
Axa Bank, which sold the company to concentrate on its core activity of retail banking, was advised by Jones Lang LaSalle’s corporate finance and capital markets divisions.
