CBRE advises Rivercrown in €120M «Refundos» office portfolio sale

Real estate consultant, CBRE, and Spanish law firm Uría Menéndez have advised Rivercrown on the sale of a portfolio of seven core and core-plus office assets located in one of Lisbon’s most demanded areas to a listed fund from Singapore. With a GLA of 42,283 sqm, the portfolio has traded for c. €120M.

The British firm, directed by Jacobs Lyon and Stephen Benson, bought the assets from Portuguese fund Maxirent in September 2019. The deal included the acquisition of Refundos SGOIC S.A., the asset management company that managed and owned the office assets.

Stephen Benson, managing director at Rivercrown says, “We acquired our holding in Maxirent as we saw opportunities to create value through a number of initiatives including leasing and planning gains which we realised through the period of our ownership. The buyer will benefit from the prime nature of the fund’s assets – stable income and further yield compression. Portugal remains firmly on our radar as an attractive place to do business. We are actively working on further value-add and opportunistic investments both directly, and particularly as in Maxirent’s case by taking control and ownership stakes in publicly-listed real estate companies, REITs and funds.”

Benson adds, “A lot of real estate in Portugal is privately owned by a relatively small number of local players, not international investors. Transactions are often ‘off-market’ too, so you need local experts who know the market inside out. It was Rivercrown’s local Lisbon-based team’s expertise that helped us to acquire the stake in Maxirent in 2019, and we are confident this expertise will drive similar deals in the future. Our unique combination of real estate and public markets experience means we are well placed to spot value and acquire stakes in small and mid-cap publicly listed real estate companies, funds and REITs”.

The fund continues to search for more investment opportunities in the Portuguese market, as they say, that what makes especially attractive this market is that it is not yet as well-known as other markets such as Paris, London or Madrid.

Founded in 2004, Rivercrown has €10 billion in assets under management. In addition to Portugal and the United Kingdom, the company is present in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The company also has a finance and capital markets division.