Cyril Leonard commitment in german office market in 2006

Posted: 19/06/2006

Cyril Leonard GmbH, the Munich office of the UK property consultants together with Barrs Freer-Smith, have negotiated and agreed the purchase of the largest forward commitment placing in the German office market this year.

The placing of the £250 million (£171 million) Orion Portfolio being developed by FOM/LEG-BW with the Ahouvi Group has set a new level of sophistication in the German market.

The Orion Portfolio, a development of four new headquarter buildings for Deutsche Telekom located in Bonn, Darmstadt and Muenster, extending in all to some 89,269m² of lettable space with 2,437 car spaces, was won by FOM/LEG-BW in a fierce competition last Autumn after being put out to bid by Sireo.

'The development of the four properties is now underway and will be completed in a phased handover to Deutsche Telekom over the next 18 months. The market is developing very fast and we are seeing levels of sophistication which were not present 24 months ago' said Cyril Leonard partner Jamie Glerum. The investment market continues to harden as more overseas investors enter the market

FOM Heidelberg was the co-developer of the Ten Towers development in Munich, which was sold to London & Regional plc at the end of last year for a net yield well below 6.00%. In addition FOM and their partners are developing the exciting new Sueddeutsche Verlag in Munich. There was a heated public debate over its height and finally the city fathers threw the decision to a public referendum, which lopped off a number of floors.

LEG-BW is the development company of the State of Baden Wuerttemberg and is partly owned by Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg (LBBW), the state bank.

Cyril Leonard GmbH negotiated directly on behalf of the Ahouvi Group. Reinhard Walter, the chairman and owner of FOM said: 'We certainly appreciate another success in an international competition. Although our development attracted a great deal of attention in Germany right from the start, we focussed on negotiations with international investors. We are glad that after intensive but always fair negotiations within a few weeks we were able to conclude an agreement.'

The Ahouvi Group have about 5 billion of properties in the UK, Netherlands and Scandinavia and about a further 800 million in Germany and Switzerland.

Currently Cyril Leonard GmbH is working on three other deals with FOM, which is rapidly becoming Germany's most exciting development company.

The Ahouvi Group was advised by

Solicitors
AMC - Ashursts

Accountants
PwC

Environmental
Drees & Sommer

FOM/LEG-BW was represented by Freshfields.

Note to editors:

For further information :-

Cyril Leonard GmbH
Schönfeldstrasse 13
80537 MUNICH
Germany

James m. GLERUM MRICS + 49 89 544 1 55 22