Rubicon Europe Trust has done it again, this week with the purchase of Nike’s European and Middle East Headquarters in the Netherlands for €90.4 million ($A155.8 million).
The latest acquisition is the second purchase in a week for REU, which last week bought the Hermes Plaza development in Brussels, Belgium for $A280 million.
The Nike HQ is located within the Arena Media Park submarket of Hilversum, the Netherlands’ media city. Hilversum is approximately 30 kilometres south-east of Amsterdam and 25 kilometres north of Utrecht.
Nike currently occupies 31,539 sqm of space in five campus buildings around a central courtyard. The property also includes car parking for 327 spaces.
The Commons building has a Nike outlet store on the ground floor, a canteen on two floors, a fitness area, basketball area and two aerobics rooms. Around the five buildings are spread two tennis courts, an outdoor basketball court and a volley-ball court.
The initial yield on acquisition is 6.3% and the weighted average remaining lease term is 6.5 years with 31% of the space expiring in May 2009 and 69% of the space expiring in May 2014
Rent indexation Annual rent reviews 100% linked to Dutch CPI
Rubicon’s managing director Gordon Fell said the purchase of the Nike HQ and Hermes Plaza development were the main acquisitions for the trust following its initial public offering last December.
“We are delighted to announce our second acquisition since the IPO of the Trust last December. When we floated the trust, we articulated a pan-European investment strategy to grow and diversify the initial portfolio which contained exclusively German assets.
“We have now demonstrated an ability to source high quality assets in three different countries, enhancing geographic and tenant diversification and increasing distributions,” he added.
Fell said the trust is unlikely to make another major acquisition in the near future.
The Nike HQ acquisition will initially be 100% debt funded.
Upon completion of the Nike HQ acquisition and the Phase I Hermes Plaza acquisitions, REU will have five Class A income producing properties covering 178,091 sqm in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and a further three development opportunities with in place approvals for 34,207 sqm of Class A office space.
REU has forecast an increase in distribution to 9.50 cents per security in 2007 – an increase of 5.6% on the expected distribution of 9.0 cents per security in 2006.
The acquisition of Nike HQ was originated off market by Rubicon in conjunction with DTZ.
By Nelson Yap
