9th Jul 2007 07:01
Alpha Pyrenees Trust Limited09 July 2007 9th July 2007 ALPHA PYRENEES TRUST LIMITED ("ALPHA PYRENEES" OR THE "COMPANY") ALPHA PYRENEES COMPLETES FRENCH PROVINCIAL OFFICE ACQUISITIONS TOTALLING €21MILLION. Alpha Pyrenees is pleased to announce the completion of two investmenttransactions totalling approximately €21 million in Nimes and Mulhouse inFrance. The property in Nimes, Southern France, is a modern office building with anancillary retail unit and was purchased for approximately €8.5 million. The buildings are located 1 km south of Nimes city centre in a mixed use areaincluding offices, retail and residential complexes opposite a business parkdominated by biotechnology and technology companies. Access to the A9 motorway(to Montpellier and South West France) lies 1 km to the south. The A9, the A7motorway (to Lyon), and the A54 motorway (to Arles and Marseille) intersectapproximately 3 km to the south of the property. The buildings total an area of approximately 3,100 sqm of which the officesrepresent 2,900 sqm and the retail 200 sqm. The offices are fully let to a government body, the Conseil General Du Gard(equivalent to the District Council), on a fixed term lease expiring in December2013 and this accounts for 98% of the income. The retail unit is let to FranceTelecom on a lease expiring in February 2014. The investment provides an initial yield of 7.5%. The Company has also acquired an office building in Mulhouse, in the Alsaceregion of Eastern France for approximately €12.1 million. Mulhouse is close tothe Swiss and German borders, approximately 115 km to the south of Strasbourg. The property is located within a 14 hectare development zone about 0.5 km southeast of the city centre. The zone, which has been developed around a substantiallandscaped water feature, includes residential buildings, a 14 screen Multiplexcinema, an opera theatre, and two office buildings. The area has strong infrastructure links. Both the A36 motorway (Belfort -Germany) and the A35 motorway (Basel - Colmar - Strasbourg), are less than 1 kmaway. This in turn links to the A6 motorway (Paris - Lyon). The office building totals approximately 5,250 sqm in two phases and tenantsinclude BNP Paribas and Societe d'Equipement de la Region Mulhousienne ("SERM",the local development agency) on leases expiring in 2014. The investment will provide a yield of 7%. "These two acquisitions on attractive investment yields to strong government andbank tenants will contribute positively to the yield profile of Alpha Pyrenees,"said Richard Kingston, Chairman, "the Company has an active pipeline ofinvestment opportunities and expects to report further progress on acquisitions." In addition to the two provincial office acquisitions Alpha Pyrenees has alsocompleted the acquisition of the logistics warehouse investment announced on16th April 2007, for approximately €14 million. The property is located in an industrial zone bordering the A13 motorway whichlinks Paris (40kms to the east) to Normandy and is close to the town ofAubergenville. The 27,700 sqm building is fully income producing and tenants include Alloin,VHL and CEPL occupying on standard French institutional leases and provides aninitial yield of 7.4%. The Investment Manager to Alpha Pyrenees is Alpha Real Capital LLP. For further information please contact: Richard Kingston, Chairman, Alpha Pyrenees 01481 715601 Phillip Rose, CEO, Alpha Real Capital 020 7591 1609 / 07771 880 318 NOTES: ABOUT ALPHA REAL CAPITAL Alpha Real Capital is a value-adding international property fund managementgroup with operations in both the French and Spanish real estate markets. AlphaReal Capital was established by Phillip Rose and Sir John Beckwith. Phillip Rose has 25 years experience in the real estate, funds management andbanking industries in Europe, the USA and Australasia. He has been Head of RealEstate for ABN AMRO bank, Chief Operating Officer of European shopping centreinvestor and developer TrizecHahn Europe (where he was responsible for a €1billion European investment and development programme from 1999-2000), ManagingDirector of Lend Lease Global Investment where, during his tenure from 1994 to1999, he was responsible for managing European property investments andExecutive Manager of listed fund General Property Trust. He is currently a non-executive director of Great Portland Estates and a member of the ManagementCommittee of the Hermes Property Unit Trust. Sir John Beckwith has been involved in property investment and other investmentfor his entire working life. He founded London & Edinburgh Trust PLC ("LET") in1971 where he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and developed it into oneof the top ten listed real estate companies in the UK. Following the sale of LET, he established Pacific Investments through which heco-founded a number of successful asset management businesses, includingLiontrust Asset Management and Thames River Capital. Alpha Real Capital is the Investment Manager to Alpha Pyrenees Trust. Alpha RealCapital's European Funds Director, Paul Cable, is Fund Manager, Alpha PyreneesTrust. Paul Cable has 27 years experience in the real estate and banking industries inthe UK, Europe and the Far East and was previously responsible for Sir JohnBeckwith's property investment activities in France and Spain for six years. Further information is available at www.alpharealcapital.com including contactdetails for Alpha Real Capital's UK, French and Spanish offices. ABOUT ALPHA PYRENEES TRUST The Trust is a Guernsey registered closed-ended investment company investing inFrench and Spanish commercial real estate. Investment Strategy The Trust's strategy is to invest in a diversified portfolio of properties inFrance and Spain, focusing on commercial property in the industrial, logistics,office and retail sectors. Alpha Real Capital believes that there will becapital growth opportunities in the portfolio through income growth, activeasset management and yield compression. Directors The Directors of the Company, all of whom are non-executive, are responsible forthe implementation of the investment policy of the Company and the overallsupervision of the Group's activities. The Board consists of: Richard Kingston (Chairman)Christopher BennettDavid JeffreysPhillip RoseSerena Tremlett Richard Kingston was an executive director of Slough Estates Plc, one of thelargest London Stock Exchange listed property companies. He was responsible forGroup Finance at Slough Estates Plc for nine years, and chairman of theircontinental European real estate activities. He was a non-executive director ofMersey Docks and Harbour Company and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Further information is available at www.alphapyreneestrust.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Alpha Group International