Korea's NPS to have doubled investment in Berlin's Sony Centre

The sale process for the landmark Sony Centre property on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin is moving into its final phase, and from what REFIRE understands, the Canadian pension group Oxford Properties seems to be the frontrunner at this stage to become the new owner. A decision by the owners is expected imminently, with the deal to be closed within the year.

The current owner, South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS), looks likely to make a healthy profit on the sale, no matter who wins out in the bidding process. The state-run pension fund bought the Sony Centre from then-owner Morgan Stanley for €572m in May 2010, in a deal advised by real estate investment firm Hines. The 112,000 sqm mixed-use property, which includes Sony itself, Deutsche Bahn, Sanofi-Aventis and Facebook among its tenants, is now valued at €1.1bn.

Among those still in the hunt at the final round of bidding are understood to be Blackstone, the Kuwaiti sovereign fund KIA, Hong Kong's Wheelock Properties, US real estate developer Aby Rogen with his company RFR, and Canadian group Oxford Properties, acting for the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Scheme (OMERS).

The closed bidding process was started earlier this year, with Eastdil Secured and BNP Paribas Real Estate appointed to manage the sale. The massive complex consists of eight buildings in the very centre of Berlin on Potsdamer Platz, originally built after reunification as Sony's European headquarters, and now also housing cinemas and hotels. The centre is also the main home of the annual Berlin International Film Festival held every February

NPS, which is the world's third largest pension fund with $514bn of assets under management, was reported in Korean business daily Maeil Business News to be selling the property "on the grounds that it has reached its target returns". The paper suggests the decision is also timed to mark the full recovery of the European property market nine years after the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008.