Business park operator Sirius continues with asset sales

The AIM-listed, Berlin-based Sirius Real Estate, which operates branded business parks providing flexible workspace to the German SME market, said recently that it was continuing its policy of selling off non-core and older assets to reduce its borrowings.

Its latest sale is a business park in Munich’s Hoffmannstrasse for a so far undisclosed price to an unnamed buyer. Further sales of business parks, including its site in Berlin-Wittenau and in Bonn, are also said to be imminent. The planned sales should reduce the company’s Royal Bank of Scotland facility by €7.8m and provide €2.9m in surplus cash for the business. Two further recent disposals, in Bremen and Bonn, are also expected to reduce the company’s RBS loans by a further €9.7m to €80m, while further non-specified assets sales of €20m are also slated to reduce the company’s RBS debt burden.

Sirius originally bought 38 separate business parks throughout Germany with the proceeds of its IPO in London in 2007, and has since unified them under the Sirius brand, targeted at Germany’s small- and medium-sized enterprises. The company describes its business parks as “marketed centrally, enabling the Sirius team to offer space across the country and with the ability for tenants to configure space according to their needs.” The range of products includes smartspace, FlexiLager and FlexConnect.

Because of volatile global market conditions, the company states it has stopped investing and expanding its portfolio. Instead, the current phase of the business plan focuses on increasing the value of the existing portfolio through an active asset management program. In other words, consolidation – including offering asset management services to third parties. Andrew Coombs, the CEO of Sirius Facilities, said of the latest disposals: “The sale of these assets aligns us with our strategy to recycle cash from our mature and non-core sites, pay back debt and become self financing.”