The 38-story property is the largest office building in Viennaat some 678,000 square feet of floor space and is fully leased tofirms including OMV, Borealis, Ernst & Young and Oracle.Stephen Miles, Director EMEA Capital Markets at Jones Lang LaSalle,which advised Matrix, said the deal is one of the largest singleasset office transactions in Europe in recent months and,"demonstrates that there is investor strength and depth for goodquality assets, despite macroeconomic conditions that remainchallenging across many markets."

The sale of IZD Tower, located adjacent to the United Nationsbuilding in the Donaustadt region of Vienna, releases $80.5 millionof cash, of which $43.7 million will be used for liabilities.Following this procedure, total outstanding debt amounts to $329million, giving an LTV based on the December portfolio valuation of64.6%. Matrix said its portfolio, post-transaction, is valued at$500 million.

This sale is the latest stage in a package of measures Matrixhas been undertaking over the past two years in order to de-gearand stabilise its portfolio, and follows sales in the German cityof Mnster and French town of Montpellier. "This places the companyin a strong position to look to the future growth .. and the boardis considering the application of surplus IZD proceeds foradditional de-gearing, reinvestment and other uses," Matrixsaid.