Press Release

Catalyst Capital, the European real estate investment and asset management firm, has acquired a portfolio of properties in the UK for £13.15 million.

Catalyst’s new European real estate fund, Catalyst European Property Fund II (CEPF II), has purchased the portfolio of four properties from TH Real Estate. The net initial yield is 8% and the reversionary yield is 12%.

The properties comprise Units 2620-2650 at Birmingham Business Park, which total 52,735 sq ft and are 55% leased to a number of tenants; Building 1300 at Bristol Parkway North, which totals 30,175 sq ft and is 100% leased; a vacant 57,410 sq ft industrial unit on Eismann Way, Corby; and a 17,795 sq ft industrial unit on Stephenson Way, Newark, which is 100% leased.

Deloitte acted for Catalyst.

Guy Wilson, a partner of Catalyst Capital, said: “We are pleased to have secured this portfolio of four properties for our new European fund, which continues our current strategy in the UK of purchasing regional portfolios. The properties provide an opportunity for value enhancement through refurbishment and reletting”.

Catalyst announced in June the first close of CEPF II, a real estate fund targeting €1.25 billion of investments, having raised equity commitments of €150 million from global institutional investors.

Catalyst has already deployed for CEPF II €125 million of equity – half of which was equity from the fund and half equity from co-investing parties - in five separate transactions in the UK and Europe. In the UK, CEPF II has purchased the Regatta and Eva portfolios, which total 34 properties, for a combined price of £93 million. In France, CEPF II in January this year acquired three high-quality office buildings in established business districts of Paris Ile de France for a total of €155 million.

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.