Sirius Real Estate, the JSE and London Stock Exchange (LSE) listed owner and operator of business and industrial parks, has sold BizSpace Camberwell for £16m, a secondary asset in its portfolio. The buyer is undiclosed. The multi-tenanted Camberwell business park comprises 34,700 square feet of industrial and office space and was 91% occupied when sold.
CEO Andrew Coombs said Sirius wanted to ensure that certain properties were in its overall portfolio which currently contains more than 140 assets with an overall value of about €2.1bn. The company which first listed on the JSE’s AltX in 2014, has owned German business parks for years but recently expanded into the UK when it bought BizSpace in November 2021 for £245m. BizSpace owns flexible workspace properties, studio space and light industrial properties.
Coombs said the sale of BizSpace Camberwell which was worth about R320m would be used to pay down debt. Sirius achieved a 94% premium on the sale because of its sought-after location.
“As part of our ongoing portfolio management programme, we are progressing a small number of further sales in the UK and Germany, capturing the value we have created and allowing us to reduce our leverage post the BizSpace acquisition and also recycle capital into asset managing value within, or adding to, our portfolios,” Coombs said on Thursday.
At the end of March, the Sirius’ loan-to-value (LTV), stood at 41.6%, up from 31.4% in the year before. Sirius is trying to get the LTV to around 35% in the coming year.
Coombs said Sirius wanted to own assets worth €5bn within the next three years