Xanadu office portfolio sold for €180m

Capita Asset Services, Europe's largest provider of loan services to financial institutions, have sold German office portfolio Xanadu to an unnamed private equity firm for €180m, according to realtor Savills.

The sum amounts to just half of the €350m valuation given at the time of CMBS issuance in 2007, with the sale only proceeding as a result of the acquisition on a non-performing CMBS loan portfolio to be secured against it.

The Xanadu portfolio features seven office properties across Germany’s major industrial and financial centres, including Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Landshut and Münster. A subsidiary of German Telekom occupies the majority of the combined space of 160,000 sq m, with the centres maintaining an average remaining lease term of seven years.

Crédit Suisse, the Swiss financial services company, provided the €297m loan against the Xanadu portfolio as one part of the €1.3bn Cornerstone Titan 2007-1 pan-European Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities scheme. However, the borrowers were unable to repay the amount before it matured in January 2012.

Estate agent Savills have advised Capita on the structured selling process, with details finalised at the close of 2012. A spokesman said that the prospective closing price of €180m is still dependent upon a range of factors that may affect the final structure of the sale upon completion.

The value of Capita’s commercial mortgage loans and financial institution portfolio loans across the continent is thought to be in the region of €120bn.

The news comes following the SOS report on Monday that BNP Paribas Real Estate Property Management had been appointed by German Acorn Real Estate to manage 22 assets across the country, in what has made for a hectic start for the German commercial property market in 2013.