Press Release

Catalyst Capital, the European real estate investment and asset management firm, has acquired Embassy House, an office building in the centre of Birmingham, for £8.9 million.

Catalyst’s new European real estate fund, Catalyst European Property Fund II (CEPF II), has purchased the 10-storey, 64,070 sq ft building in Cornwall Street from Royal London Asset Management.

Embassy House is well located, just off Colmore Row and close to successful new office developments, 45 Church Street and the Cornerblock. The building is 53% leased to a range of tenants, including Maersk, AIG and Marston Group.

Catalyst Capital was advised by GVA and Royal London Asset Management by Cushman & Wakefield.

Guy Wilson, a partner of Catalyst Capital, said: “The acquisition of Embassy House continues our strategy of purchasing well-located regional city centre office properties with potential for improvement”.

Catalyst announced in June the first close of CEPF II, a real estate fund targeting €1 billion of investments. Catalyst has already acquired around €680 million of real estate across Europe for CEPF II. Among the transactions are the Regatta and Eva portfolios, which total 34 properties, in the UK, Project 10, a €200 million German office and retail portfolio, and three high-quality office buildings in established business districts of Paris.

CEPF II invests in the office and retail sectors and, geographically, in the countries in Europe where Catalyst has an established presence, which are the UK, France, Belgium, Germany and Poland, where Catalyst believes there is the potential to source attractive value-creation opportunities and capitalise on the market dislocation between prime and secondary assets. It is targeting a diversified portfolio of income-producing assets and development and refurbishment opportunities.