ADIA puts Edinburgh’s Saltire Court up for sale

Saltire-Court-EdinburghAbu Dhabi Investment Authority has put Saltire Court in Edinburgh up for sale for £69m – a 6.54% yield.

The Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund’s asset manager, Aberdeen Asset Management, has appointed Cushman & Wakefield to market the 180,000 sq ft office building.

If sold, it will be the first time the building will have traded for 23 years and represents the largest real estate investment opportunity currently available in Scotland. ADIA bought the building from Scottish Metropolitan in 1993 for £53m.

ADIA is understood to be looking to tidy up its portfolio by exiting from its smaller holdings.

Steven Newlands, partner, capital markets, at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “We are really excited to be involved in such a landmark sale. It has got international appeal for a variety of different reasons”.

The building, at 20 Castle Terrace, is the Edinburgh base of blue chip tenants including Deloitte, KPMG and CMS Cameron McKenna.

The average unexpired lease term is just under 10 years. Slightly less than 30,000 sq ft is currently vacant in the building although the seller is providing rental guarantees on the space to any purchaser and there is understood to be occupational interest in the remaining space.

The opportunity is expected to appeal to core and core-plus investors including UK institutions, German funds and US private equity investors.

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