Carlyle Group Buys Six 'White Tower' Assets For GBP671M

8th Jul 2010 12:06

By Anita Likus and Ainsley Thomson Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--Private equity group The Carlyle Group LP Thursday said it had bought six landmark London properties--formerly part of Simon Halabi's GBP1 billion property portfolio, the White Tower--for GBP671 million. The properties, comprising the Thames Portfolio and Alban Gate, total in excess of 1.6 million square feet and currently include tenants such as JP Morgan Chase, UBS and IBM. They generate over GBP62 million of rent per annum. Managing director at Carlyle European Real Estate Robert Hodges said, "whilst each property benefits from an existing secure income profile, there are considerable longer term opportunities across the portfolio for active asset management and development, where we believe we can add significant value." Carlyle Group bought 60 Victoria Embankment, the 420,000 sq ft of office buildings fully let to JP Morgan Chase; Ludgate House, the 170,000 sq ft office building let to United Business Media on the south bank; Sampson House, the 350,000 sq ft building let to IBM, Millennium Bridge House, a 200,000 sq ft office building fully let to UBS; BSI Tower, located in Chiswick, West London, which is fully let to BSI Management Systems Ltd and Alban Gate, the 382,000 sq ft office property located on London Wall in the heart of the City and fully let to JP Morgan Chase. Carlyle Group bought the properties on behalf of its third pan-European real estate fund, Carlyle European Real Estate Partners III, which was launched in June 2008 with EUR2.2. billion of equity. It also secured long term financing from a syndicate of banks led by Société Générale. The financing for the Thames portfolio was provided by a consortium of banks led by Société Générale as Structuring Bank and in the case of Alban Gate, Société Générale acted as arranger and sole bookrunner. White Tower's commercial mortgage backed securities--bonds serviced with the payments made on one or more commercial mortgages--are backed by a GBP1.45 billion loan, which Halabi took out to buy nine London properties. The deal has been a widely-watched one, being the first U.K. CMBS to be placed in liquidation since the start of the financial crisis, after the falling value of the property portfolio caused the breach of a loan-to-value covenant. Eight properties went on the market in March. Last week, real estate investor Hammerson PLC (HMSO.LN) said it had agreed to buy the Leadenhall Court building for GBP65 million. -By Anita Likus, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 20 7842 9407; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 08, 2010 07:06 ET (11:06 GMT)