Alvarium joins forces with two former Arnault-LVMH executives to invest in France
Bic s historic headquarters near Paris sold for 175m
Alvarium Investments has joined forces with Alain Hortion and Stéphane Pesic to develop a real estate investment platform in France. On this occasion, the two for- mer Arnault-LVMH executives created the Osesam structure, which acts as an operating partner with the aim of deploying more than 100m per year. Alvarium is a multi-family office controlled by the Royal Family of Qatar and a wealthy family of Hong Kong real estate entrepreneurs. Based in London, the firm manages more than $18bn in assets on behalf of around 200 families and has 14 offices worldwide, including one in Paris since last year. Our investment range will be in the order of 5m to 50m per project, excluding leverage, says Cédric Lamielle, head of Alvarium s Paris office. Stéphane Pesic adds: We want to posi- tion ourselves in a build-to-core strategy by tar- geting all types of assets except logistics and by concentrating on the Paris region and the main regional metropolises, with Lyon, Lille, Nantes and Bordeaux first.
French manufacturing corporation Bic has signed with BNP Paribas Real Estate and Citallios an agree- ment for the sale its head office and the Bic Technologies site, based in Clichy-La-Garenne, near Paris. The sale amounts to 175m, for an estimated gross capital gain of approximately
169m. Bic, which remains attached to its historical roots in Clichy, announced in early February 2020 it had leased off-plan a large part of the eConic building in Clichy, to house all of its head office teams from 2022. The final signature of the sale is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.
S&P downgrades URW s credit rating to BBB+ , outlook negative Following Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) shareholders rejection of a proposed 3.5bn capital increase, which was a main component of its 9bn Reset strategic plan to decrease overall leverage, S&P Global Ratings has downgraded the Paris-based REIT/SIIC s credit rating to BBB+ , from A- , outlook negative. We believe the company will no longer be able to res- tore credit metrics compatible with an A- rating in the next two years, including debt to EBITDA lower than 13x and debt to debt and equity comfortably below 55%, the American credit rating agency explains in a release. We are the- refore lowering our long-term issuer credit rating on URW to BBB+ from A- and our issue ratings on its unsecured bonds to BBB+ from A- and junior bonds to BBB- from BBB . Stating it understands that other parts of the Reset plans may still be implemented, such as a 4bn disposal programme, S&P Global Ratings considers that the 3.5bn capital increase was an important component of the Reset plan given its immediate and strong impact on the com- pany s leverage ratios. On the contrary, due to the uncertainty surrounding the timing and likelihood of asset disposals in the strongly subdued retail property investment market, especially in the U.S , it states the failure to raise capital will push URW s credit ratios out of our previous projections.
AllianceBernstein launches 1.2bn European CRE debt business
US manager AllianceBernstein has launched a European com- mercial real estate debt (ECRED) business by partnering with a pan-European real estate debt platform. Led by Clark Coffee, the platform will launch with more than 1.2bn of initial capital. The
business will focus on direct origi- nation and secondary participations in whole loans, subordinate loans, preferred equity and other real estate backed investments across the UK and European markets. It is launching with Equitable serving as the lead initial investor.
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90 | Magazine Business Immo #171 Décembre 2020
BUSINESS IMMO / EUROPE NEWS