Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC announced its acquisition of PB6, a Grade A office tower in La Defense, the high-rise business district west of Paris, for an undisclosed amount.
French media reports pegged the deal value at €530 million ($592 million).
For GIC, the PB6 acquisition comes a year after it agreed to acquire Tour Ariane, a 40-storey office tower in the same district, for $537.1 million.
In the latest deal, GIC said PB6, an iconic 40-storey asset, represents “attractive value creation opportunities” that it wants to capture by investing to enhance the asset and service offering.
PB6, also known as Tour EDF, was built for and is fully leased by Electricite de France (EDF), France’s main electricity company. It is the tallest skyscraper built in La Defense business district in Paris.
The tower features 60,000 square meters of prime office space. The acquisition is in line with GIC’s strategy, as a long-term investor, to acquire and add value to quality assets in gateway cities, the firm said.
In October last year, GIC acquired Tour Ariane, another 40-storey office tower in the heart of the La Defense business district in Paris. The property was acquired from Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, a European commercial real estate company.
GIC is one of the biggest overseas private equity investors in Europe. According to a PitchBook report, GIC invested $14.13 billion in Europe in the second quarter of 2018, emerging as the largest foreign PE investor during that period, overtaking other PE giants including KKR & Co, Bain Capital, and Macquarie.
Some of GIC’s investments in that quarter included Helsinki-based healthcare firm Mehilainen, London-based property search platform ZPG, and France-based hotel operator AccorInvest.
GIC has also been actively investing in the global real estate space. Recently it acquired a 25.1 per cent stake in Lendlease International Towers Sydney Trust (LLITST) from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Australia-based property developer Lendlease.
LLITST holds assets located in the Barangaroo Office Precinct in the Sydney central business district (CBD) – close to Darling Harbour.
Early this month, it agreed to acquire four hotels in the US for $249 million through its recently formed joint venture with NYSE-listed real estate investment trust Summit Hotel Properties.
It is also nearing a deal to buy a majority stake in Oxford Properties Group’s Fairmont portfolio, which consists of four of Canada’s most iconic hotels, according to people familiar with the matter.
