Sirius sells German tobacco factory site

Branded business parks operator Sirius Real Estate announced the completion of the sale of its Bremen Brinkman business park in Germany for €15.5m on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said Bremen Brinkman was a non-core site, as it is located on the north coast of Germany outside of Sirius' target regions.

It said the buildings were also uniquely configured for tobacco manufacturing which, due to the costs and complexity involved, had limited the potential for investment to reconfigure the space.

The asset was being sold in line with book value, with Sirius reporting that at time of sale the asset generated net operating income of €0.9m.

As at 31 March, the site contained 48,700 square metres of vacant space which, following completion, resulted in a positive impact on the group's overall occupancy level.

The site was debt-free, so the sale proceeds would be wholly reinvested into new sites in core locations where there was greater value creation potential.

“Bremen Brinkman was one of two non-core sites in our portfolio,” said CEO Andrew Coombs.

“Its unique structure made it overly expensive for us to reconfigure and it was outside of our target regions.

“Consequently, disposing of this asset at book value means we have unlocked €15.5m of capital that can now be re-invested into our asset recycling programme where we know we can create significant additional value in key markets.”