Consultancy mission for the sale of part of InBev's Belgian and Dutch real estate portfolio
CB Richard Ellis Belgium has advised InBev in the sale of 90% of Immobrew NV/SA, a subsidiary having 824 pubs and some residential sites in Belgium and 245 pubs and some residential real estate in the Netherlands, for a total amount of 419 million euros to Cofinimmo.
Cofinimmo, one of the largest office property owners on the European market, has acquired the portfolio on basis of a sale and lease back through a commercial lease for a length of 27 years.
CB Richard Ellis’ mission consisted in the valuation of all their real estate assets and structuration of the deal. CB Richard Ellis advised InBev to opt for the sale & lease back method. This operation allows InBev to release capital and to reinvest it in their core-business: the brewing industry.
The collaboration between the Valuation and the Investment departments of CB Richard Ellis have allowed offering a first quality service and first-class advice on the matter. Once more CB Richard Ellis has proven that its teams and international network are a great advantage for its clients.
During this mission, CB Richard Ellis has worked in close collaboration with the Investment bank Lazard. The two companies have been selected after an invitation to tender having brought together real estate consultants, audit companies and financial institutions from both Belgium and the Netherlands. The know-how and the experience of each entity gave the tandem a real added value for this mission.
According to Gaétan Clermont, Managing Director of CB Richard Ellis “the method of sale & lease back is very popular in the US: almost 80% of the real estate is being leased and only 20% is being used by the owners. In Europe, the opposite is true but we do note a trend that companies are increasingly using this financial technique. The sale & lease back represent principally two advantages: first it allows to free some assets for the company and to re-invest this in its core-business, which provides a better profitability, and secondly this technique gives more flexibility to the company: as a tenant the company can easily change its real estate facilities if needed.”
“Concerning the Sicafi, it was essentially created for office real estate investments, today we observe a real will of the investors to diversify their assets: we have indeed recently noted some Sicafi that were investing in elderly homes, logistics, retail and now pubs,” concludes Gaétan Clermont.
CB Richard Ellis is worldwide leader in commercial real estate and the unquestionable leader in investment transactions on the Belgian market.
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