Pontegadea ends the negotiation for an 80 million office building in Edinburgh without agreement

Pontegadea, the property firm of the founder of Inditex Amancio Orteganegotiations to acquire an office building in Edinburgh (Scotland) end without agreement. According to sources familiar with the operation, Economic Informationthe acquisition has remained a dead letter after the American fund Federated Hermes has backed down with the sale of the asset valued at around 70 million pounds sterling (90 million euros at the current exchange rate).

The movement, reported from the specialized publication CoStar Newsputs an end to a negotiation that has dragged on, at least, since last March, when the media echoed the interest of the Spanish businessman’s investment vehicle in purchasing the property called Capital Squarewhich has an area of ​​11,900 square meters and was developed by BAM Properties in 2021.

The operation, which expected to be closed at a profit (or yield) of around 5.75%, would have allowed the family office be ‘home’ to professional services companies and law firms such as Brodies, Pinsent Masons, Mazars, Strantec, Eversheds and Anderson Strathern, tenants of this building located in the Exchange commercial district, between Morrison Street and Lothian Road, close to Haymarket station.

This is not the only operation that Pontegadea has underway in the Scottish market. Ortega’s investment arm In the last year it has also tested the purchase of The Mint Buildinga Hines asset in Edinburgh valued at around €50 million and leased to finance companies FNZ and Nationwide Building Society, as well as catering companies Franco Manca and Tattu. Years ago, in 2022, Pontegadea has already successfully formalized the purchase of a property in Glasgow for 215 million pounds (247 million euros).

From another angle, the operation does not seem to be due to a withdrawal of its expansion strategy in the United Kingdom, where, without going any further, last week in Liverpool it acquired one of the largest logistics centers (80,000 square meters) that Amazon operates in the British market, until now managed by PLP Knowsley, in exchange for 80 million pounds (92 million euros). On the other hand, Pontegadea shored up its business in this region with the purchase of 49% of the port company and logistics company PD Ports to Brookfield Asset Management in a deal that closed last July.

Among the assets that Pontegadea has recently added to its real estate portfolio, the Sabadell Financial Centera property in which the offices of Banco Sabadell in the United States are located, which it acquired for 274.4 million dollars (235 million euros) to KKR and Parkwa in a transaction considered the largest office sale so far this year in South Florida.