In a FFr 7bn cash-raising exercise, Générale des Eaux has agreed to sell some of its property jewels.
French utilities giant Compagnie Générale des Eaux has sold four high-profile buildings in Paris and Berlin, and agreed two further sales in a bid to pay off some of its debt mountain.
It has sold its largest asset in La Défense, the 77,000 m2 Descartes tower, to US fund Blackstone Capital Partners. The tower is let to IBM. The price has not be revealed, but is thought to be around FFr 1.54bn, reflecting FFr 20,000 per m2.
The deal marks Blackstone Real Estate Advisors’ first major acquisition in Paris. The fund also has the option to buy the nearby Esplanade (51,000 m2) and Pacific (41,000 m2) towers in 1997, unless CGE can get a better price for them before the end of the year.
In Berlin, CGE has disposed of three recently-completed retail and office schemes, the 30,000 m2 Quartier 207 in Friedrichstadtpassagen, the 32,000 m2 Lindencorso centre and the 47,000 m2 Anthropolis office park north of the city centre. The three developments were sold for a total of DM 1.1bn, around FFr 3.8bn.
CGE said all three purchasers were “investment funds held by individuals and German corporates”. Local agents said Commerzbank subsidiary Commerz Leasing had bought Lindencorso, while KG Allgemeine Leasing had acquired Quartier 207.
Including the Esplanade and Pacific towers, the sales will raise more than FFr 7bn.The transactions, announced last month, were finalised in the closing days of last year in a bid to reduce CGE’s debt burden. In total the company raised FFr 19bn last year through the sale of assets and stakes in subsidiaries. CGE’s debt peaked in 1995 at FFr 52bn.
Other property sales last year included the FFr 3.13bn development funding of 118,000 m2 of new offices at La Défense, with Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and the disposal of the 18,000 m2 Belvédère building to KPMG.
