Luxembourg-based real estate private equity firm Blue Colibri has acquired an office property in Vienna, Austria for one of its funds from German asset manager Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate.
Financial details were not disclosed for the transaction, which took the form of a share deal.
The eight-storey office building at Brehmstrasse 14 in south-east Vienna was built in 2002, and provides a gross lettable area of about 13,830 m2 and 147 underground parking spots. The main tenant is the Austrian government's Ministry of Finance with a weighted average lease term of roughly 10 years. Warburg-HIH purchased the asset in December 2015.
'The asset strategy succeeded in securing long-term rental upside potential. The above-average length of the lease terms reflects the demand for efficient office accommodation in this sub-market,' said Jana Wetzel, real estate manager at Warburg-HIH Invest Austria.
Matthias Brodesser, head of transaction management international at Warburg-HIH added: 'At the end of the past year, we made the strategic decision to sell because we saw an opportunity to achieve significant appreciation compared to our total investment costs at the time of the acquisition in late 2015.
'Notwithstanding this disposal, we intend to add further commercial real estate properties to our existing portfolio in Austria in the future.'
Warburg-HIH was advised on legal matters by Dorda Rechtsanwälte (Austria) and Hogan Lovells (Germany) and received tax advice from TPA in Vienna. EHL Investment Consulting, part of the EHL Group, brokered the purchase of the property to Blue Colibri Capital.
