W.P. Carey Group Nabs $58M German Acquisition

SOEST, GERMANY-Two of New York-based W.P. Carey’s publicly held non-traded REIT’s–Global and CPA–are acquiring two German properties for $58 million. The listed German investment company, Arques Industries, is selling its Soest facility and Bad Wuennenberg property to the American company. Both properties serve, respectively, as headquarters and a logistics facility for Arques-owned Actebis AG Global.

Actebis, Europe’s third largest wholesale distributor of IT goods and services, was purchased by Arques in 2007. The properties in Soest and Bad Wuennenberg came with the deal. Actebis will remain in both spaces, working out a triple-net long term lease. The lengths and prices of the leases are not disclosed, but the average length of a long term lease is 15 to 20 years. The Soest property, a 23,000-square-meter headquarters, is located 75 miles northeast of Dusseldorf; while the 34,000-square-meter Bad Wuennenberg logistics facility is eight miles south of Paderborn. Arques is selling the properties to converge some of its assets into cash for future investment.

“The sale-leaseback transaction with W.P. Carey is enabling us to recapitalize our balance sheet and focus on growing the core businesses of our portfolio companies as well as expanding our investment opportunities,” says Dr. Michael Schumann, CEO of Arques, in a statement.

Sale-leasebacks and the like have become popular ways of freeing up capital, especially in Germany and giving a short-term make-over to a company’s balance sheet.

W.P. Carey & Co. LLC manages a global investment portfolio over $10 billion and provides long-term sale-leaseback and build-to-suit financing for other companies.