STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Nov. 06, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Skanska is selling a property block in Gothenburg to DB Real Estate Investment GmbH, a company within the Deutsche Bank Group. The sale price is SEK 360 M, generating a capital gain of SEK 92 M. The gain will be booked in the fourth quarter of 2003. The new owner will have access to the Kopparn, Gullbergsvass 4:2 property in December 2003.
Skanska, which acquired the Gothenburg property block in 1998, initiated an extensive renovation of the building in 2001, including the addition of two office floors.
"Through extensive development work with this block, we created strong commercial prospects in a short time, both for the tenants and investors. The fact that the buyer is a long-term international investor shows there is interest in the quality of our projects and in the Swedish market," says Claes Larsson, President of Skanska Project Development Sweden.
If P&C Insurance, Capio AB and Nordea are the largest tenants in the building. Of the property's nearly 14,800 square meters of space, about 12,500 square meters are office premises and the balance is accounted for by shops and a restaurant. The property also has garage space to accommodate slightly more than 200 cars. All of the premises are leased.
"Scandinavia and Sweden in particular is currently a very interesting market with good opportunities for real estate investments. The acquisition of the "Kopparn" property is the fifth property for the internationally investing open-ended real estate fund grundbesitz- global," says Werner Welter, managing director of the DB Real Estate Investment GmbH.
Currently, "grundbesitz-global" owns real estate in Sweden valued at approximately EUR 360 M (including the Kopparn block). Today, the fund owns 25 properties with a combined value of about EUR 2.1 billion.
Skanska Project Development Sweden focuses primarily on the initiation, development, management and sale of commercial property projects (offices, logistics and volume retail centers). The main emphasis is on Stockholm, Gothenburg and the Oresund region.
During 2003, Skanska's project development operations in Sweden and Central Europe have sold properties totaling SEK 5.6 billion, at a combined capital gain of around SEK 1.9 billion. Ninety percent of the capital gain is from projects completed during the past five years.
This and previous releases can also be found at www.skanska.com
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