Generali France Pays 285M Euros for Office Portfolio

PARIS-The insurance company Generali France has acquired a portfolio of eight office and retail properties here for 285 million euros ($346.8 million). The properties comprise 775,000 sf and are fully leased. The properties are located in Paris (100 rue Réamur) and the western suburbs of Puteaux-La Défense, Issy les Moulineaux, Levallois (two assets), Boulogne and Suresnes, as well as Saint-Denis. Tenants include Caisse d’Epargne, Natexis, Reuters, Reed Expo, Michelin and Tetrapak.The assets were acquired from Euro 5 Property Fund, an investment vehicle set up by LaSalle Investment Management to take advantage of recovering real estate markets in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany. The fund has been closed for some time. Information was not immediately available on what assets remain in the fund and what the ROI was on this latest sale.Catella Property Consultants advised LaSalle in the transaction. Eurhypo provided the acquisition financing.Generali France Assurances accounts for 15% of the French business or Groupe Generali, Europe’s leading life insurance company. Groupe Generali has operations in 60 countries, with 176 companies including 113 in insurance, 55 holdings and seven in property. In France, Generali has 11 insurance and assistance companies and over five million customers.Catella Property Consultants also advised the sellers of two other significant portfolios in the Paris region. In the first deal, Qatar Islamic Bank acquired four office properties totaling 646,000 sf for 160 million euros ($194.8 million). The properties were Place Marcel Paul, a 191,000-sf building in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, Paris suburb that is occupied by EDF; Boulevard Hyppolite Marquès, a 86,000-sf building in Ivry sur Seine, an industrial suburb of Paris; and two properties located at 66/70 and 97/105 avenue Pierre Brossolette in Malakoff that comprise 366,000 sf and are occupied by Thalès.The seller of Place Marcel Paul was MSREF/Foncière des Régions. The seller of the other properties was not revealed. In the other deal, the property company Gecina acquired three office properties totaling 1.2 million sf from one of the funds of Deutsche Bank Real Estate Opportunity Group, though the acquisition of the owning companies. The transaction price was 123.5 million euros ($150.3 million). All of the properties are to a large extent let to the Thales Group and 80% of the total rental income is secured in firm six-year (or longer) lease contracts.