Aberdeen sells London building in £124m deal

Aberdeen Asset Management’s efforts to ease the post-Brexit run on its property fund has seen it complete the £124 million sale of a flagship retail and office building in London.

The firm sold the Oxford Street property, occupied by retailer Boots, to Norges Bank Investment Management, which handles Norway’s £658 billion sovereign wealth fund.

Last week Aberdeen lifted a week-long suspension from trading in its property fund. The firm was one of seven property funds worth around £18 billion to suspend dealings last week as investors attempted to take money out of the UK property market.

The property, 355-361 Oxford Street, known as Sedley Place, was held by the firm’s Aberdeen UK Property Fund.

Gerry Ferguson, Aberdeen’s head of UK property pooled funds, said the sale was one of a “limited number” the group planned to make.

“Following a period of higher than normal redemptions from the fund after the EU referendum result and the suspension of other funds’ trading, the fund is now seeking to rebuild its liquidity position”, he said.

Meanwhile, property consultants CBRE has announced that it has secured a new occupier for The Tun, a high profile office development in Edinburgh owned by the Charities Property Fund, a client of Savills Investment Management, representing one of the first major lettings in Edinburgh, post Brexit.

Cloudreach, a global cloud enabler, has taken a suite on the third floor, extending to 7,350 sq ft, on a new five year lease.

The firm plans to use the space as the UK branch of its operations centre.

Headquartered in London, Cloudreach is leading partner of Microsoft and Salesforce.

Since being founded in 2009, it has cemented its reputation for expertise in planning, migrating and managing mission critical infrastructure to the public cloud, with enterprise customers including Channel4, Nissan, Time Inc. and the Met Office. Following significant global success, Cloudreach has acquired the new office in Edinburgh to support further expansion.

Cloudreach joins a strong list of existing occupiers at The Tun including GMC, BBC, Vattenfall, WWF and the European Parliament. Neighbouring commercial occupiers in the area include Rockstar North, Citibank and the Scottish Government.

CBRE director Alan Matthews, said: “It is great news that Cloudreach has decided to take occupation at The Tun. It is a fantastic building with flexible open plan floor plates, and is a superb example of the regeneration of an existing building, coupled with striking contemporary modern architecture. It benefits from being situated in a highly accessible location, close to both a wide variety of amenities as well as great public transport links.”