Norges Bank Real Estate Management agreed to acquire Axel Springer Neubau office building from Axel Springer SE (DB:SPR) in a sale and leaseback deal for approximately €430 million.

Norges Bank Real Estate Management agreed to acquire Axel Springer Neubau office building from Axel Springer SE (DB:SPR) in a sale and leaseback deal for approximately €430 million on July 14, 2017. The consideration is payable upon completion of the building, due in December 2019. The building is unencumbered by debt and no financing is involved in the transaction. In a related transaction, Axel Springer agreed to sell Axel Springer Passage to Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe V L.P. managed by Blackstone Real Estate Advisors and QUINCAP Investment Partners GmbH & Co. KG for €330 million. The transaction is subject to completion of construction as well as the payment of the purchase price and is expected to take place at the end of 2019. Axel Springer will use the proceeds for future digital growth initiatives. Thomas Müller, John Flüh, Jan D. Bonhage, Lars Voigt, Loretta Lang, Mandana Bahrampour, Erasmus Hoffmann and Maren Klinsing of Hengeler Mueller Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten mbB acted as legal advisors while JLL acted as real estate advisor to Axel Springer. Patrick Reich of Caleus Capital Investors accompanied both deals. Niko Schultz-Süchting, Alexander Schwahn, Stefan Frick, Mareike Schmidt, Anne Harder and David Stadermann of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Hamburg) acted as legal advisors for Norges Bank Real Estate Management.