News

Irish Life completes final sales on the mainland

News

Rachel Frampton

02 December 1999

The insurance company is to concentrate its investment strategy on Ireland and the UK. By Doug Payne.

Irish Life has sold its property investments in Germany and the Netherlands, completing its withdrawal from continental Europe. The price – IR £33.5m – was described as “very satisfactory” by Irish Life’s head of investment property, Sean O’Brien.

The deals follow the sale in February of three Brussels office blocks in exchange for a shareholding in Confinimmo, the publicly-quoted Belgian property company.

In Germany, the company sold four multi-tenanted office properties, three in Düsseldorf and one in Frankfurt, comprising more than 7,000 m2 in total.

The buildings were sold to Hansa Invest, the open-ended property fund run by German fund manager CGI, for about IR£14.5m.

In The Netherlands, seven properties – mainly office blocks – were sold to Dutch quoted property company Vastned Office/Industrial. The properties, six offices and one retail investment, are located in The Hague and Rotterdam, and fetched about IR £19m, with 25% in the form of shares in the purchasing company. Jones Lang Wootton advised Irish Life in both deals.

Irish Life decided to rebalance its portfolio last year after the introduction in Germany of new capital gains tax rules. The company also wanted to concentrate its activity in Ireland and the UK, feeling its foreign portfolio did not give it adequate exposure in any single market.

Since then it has sold IR £134m worth of European property and made acquisitions in the UK and Ireland worth IR £53m. Irish Life recently invested IR £15m in an acquisition in Dublin’s City West Business Park and another IR £8.5m in The Square in Tallaght shopping complex.

Last year, the fund sold IR £45m of mainly Dublin properties to Castle Market Holdings – a joint venture set up by Treasury Holdings and the UK-based company, Jermyn Investment. That sale was one of five separate deals last year which saw Irish Life dispose of IR £66m worth of properties in Ireland over two years.

The company’s Irish portfolio is now worth IR £430m making it the largest investment holder in the market.

The insurance company is to concentrate its investment strategy on Ireland and the UK. By Doug Payne. Irish Life has sold its property investments in Germany and the Netherlands, completing its withdrawal from continental Europe. The price – IR £33.5m – was described as “very satisfactory” by Irish Life’s head of investment property, Sean O’Brien. The deals follow the sale in February of three Brussels office blocks in exchange for a shareholding in Confinimmo, the publicly-quoted Belgian property company. In Germany, the company sold four multi-tenanted office properties, three in Düsseldorf and one in Frankfurt, comprising more than 7,000 m2 in total. The buildings were sold to Hansa Invest, the open-ended property fund run by German fund manager CGI, for about IR£14.5m. In The Netherlands, seven properties – mainly office blocks – were sold to Dutch quoted property company Vastned Office/Industrial. The properties, six offices and one retail investment, are located in The Hague and Rotterdam, and fetched about IR £19m, with 25% in the form of shares in the purchasing company. Jones Lang Wootton advised Irish Life in both deals. Irish Life decided to rebalance its portfolio last year after the introduction in Germany of new capital gains tax rules. The company also wanted to concentrate its activity in Ireland and the UK, feeling its foreign portfolio did not give it adequate exposure in any single market. Since then it has sold IR £134m worth of European property and made acquisitions in the UK and Ireland worth IR £53m. Irish Life recently invested IR £15m in an acquisition in Dublin’s City West Business Park and another IR £8.5m in The Square in Tallaght shopping complex. Last year, the fund sold IR £45m of mainly Dublin properties to Castle Market Holdings – a joint venture set up by Treasury Holdings and the UK-based company, Jermyn Investment. That sale was one of five separate deals last year which saw Irish Life dispose of IR £66m worth of properties in Ireland over two years. The company’s Irish portfolio is now worth IR £430m making it the largest investment holder in the market.