Hermes Property Asset Management Ltd - Bristol, Greyfriars & Walsall

Date: 23 Oct 2001

Two major commercial property assets have been acquired, one in Bristol, the other in Walsall by a joint venture company comprising GE Capital Real Estate and Opus Land.

The larger of the two purchases, Greyfriars, a landmark office building in Bristol was acquired from Hermes. The City Centre office complex situated opposite the City Law Courts provides 13 floors of prime office space and was constructed in 1974. Two separate blocks provide 107,000 sq ft net producing £1.47 million per annum from four strong tenants namely the Government, AXA Sun Life, Unilever and Bristol Healthcare. The GE Capital Real Estate and Opus joint venture paid £13.5 million for the freehold, which has opportunities for active management.

King Sturge acted on behalf of Hermes in respect of the sale and have been retained to deal with the subsequent lettings.

At Walsall, the Joint Venture has purchased Powerhouse's main distribution depot for the UK of approximately 164,000 sq ft on a site of 12.6 acres. The complex is let to Powerhouse at £475,000 per
annum having 17 years unexpired. Negotiations are underway for a regearing of the lease, refurbishment and an extension of up to 100,000 sq ft. The freehold investment was acquired at a price of £5.525 million.

Mansfield Elstob Main acted on behalf of the vendors, Brightside.

Commenting on behalf of GE Capital Real Estate, Mark Collins said

"The formation of joint ventures is a key element of our business strategy, so we were delighted when Opus Land approached us with two such interesting properties that give us the opportunity to add value through active management."

Richard Smith, joint Chief Executive of Opus Land said

"We made the decision to seek to acquire an investment portfolio which would benefit from active management to sit alongside our existing development programme. These two properties provide an ideal example of the type of stock which we are actively seeking to acquire. We have worked very successfully with GE Capital and hope that further investments will be purchased by this joint venture."

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