GreenOak is selling Mercedes Business Park in Madrid.

Photo of Sonny Kalsi from GreenOak’s website.

GreenOak’s Spanish REIT “Go Madrid Benz Socimi” (“YGOB”), which listed on the MAB in 2018, has agreed the sale of its main asset, the Mercedes Business Park. The REIT started trading at price of €12 per share and a market cap of €60 million and is now trading at €11.9 per share, its lowest level since IPO. Having bought the Mercedes Business Park from Standard Life in 2016 for circa €140 million, the decision to sell coincides with the 3-year minimum holding period required for Spanish REITs to enjoy fiscal benefits.

The 78,500m² office complex is let to a range of quality tenants, including Altran, Enaire, Carrefour, the Spanish Medicines Regulatory Agency and Xerox. This is, in fact, the second vehicle GreenOak listed on the Madrid stock exchange in 2018, following their IPO of Gore Spain (“YGRE”).

Having improved the property’s rents and brought lease-up to a 90% occupancy level, the value-add fund has hired CBRE to lead the sale process and offers are expected between May and June at a level of €200 million.

The Business park, known as Parque Empresarial Las Mercedes, is a complex comprised by nine office buildings located in the northeast of Madrid overlooking the A-2 motorway in one of the fastest growing areas of the Spanish capital where new company headquarters have been located in recent years including the former HQ of Banco Popular (now owned by Santander), the Clínica Universidad de Navarra or Vodafone’s HQ.

This divestment follows GreenOak’s sale of Avalon Business Park to Barings in January 2019 which, as reported by SpanishREIT.com, is located in Julián Camarillo, a techie zone of Madrid and is composed of 9 buildings with a total GLA of ​​almost 47,000m².

Property moguls John Carrafiell, Sonny Kalsi and Fred Schmidt founded GreenOak in 2010 and the Spanish office is led by Jasie Leekha, Javier Zarrabeitia and Javier Lop ez Galdós. The team is currently selling their entire logistic portfolio whilst seeking to invest in offices like Albarracín 34 which they recently bought from AXA.