French asset management giant Amundi has sold the last two remaining assets from its UK portfolio for a combined £158m.
Swiss property firm Balder has acquired 8 Fenchurch Place, EC3, for £75m and boutique investment bank London & Oxford Group is understood to have exchanged contracts on Westferry House, E14, for around £83m.
Amundi, the asset management subsidiary jointly created by Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, instructed Cushman & Wakefield in May to advise on the sale of the UK portfolio of eight office buildings it has largely acquired over the past five years.
Some of the assets were acquired through Amundi’s €1bn acquisition of Union Investments’ Aqua portfolio of European properties in 2015 – a portfolio comprising 17 office properties in the UK, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.
The first property from the portfolio to sell was the 220,000 sq ft headquarters of insurer Admiral in Cardiff to LaSalle Investment Management, which acquired the building on behalf of the Royal Mail Pension Plan, for close to £90m, reflecting a yield of around 4.25%.
London & Oxford Group has been contacted for comment.
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