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Pair of W.P Carey’s Non-Traded REITs Acquire Norwegian Property

CPA®:17 – Global and CPA®:18 – Global, two of W.P. Carey’s non-traded REITs made a joint acquisition in Stavanger, Norway. The REITs acquired the headquarters of Apply AS for approximately $100 million (NOK 662 million).

Arvi Luoma, Director of W. P. Carey, commented, “The acquisition of the Apply headquarters marks our third high profile transaction in Norway this year, following CPA®:18 – Global’s purchase of Siemens’ new Norwegian headquarters in Oslo and W. P. Carey Inc.‘s acquisition of French oil major Total’s Norwegian headquarters in Stavanger.”

A Norwegian oil and gas industry topside engineering and services company, Apply AS is located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, which is one of the world’s largest proven oil reserves. The company is majority owned by Køhlergruppen, which is the founding family of the predecessor to Apply, Sørco Group, and HitecVision, which is Europe’s leading private equity firm for the oil & gas industry.

The Class A office facility is located in Stavanger’s largest and one of its fastest growing submarkets, Forus. Stavanger is also considered the oil capital of Europe and a hotspot for North Sea oil exploration. Construction was completed in January 2014 and the building is extremely energy efficient. It is subject to a triple net lease with approximately 14 years remaining.

“This transaction is in line with our investment strategy of acquiring high-quality, mission critical assets,” continued Mr. Luoma. “It comes with a long-term commitment from Apply AS, one of the leading MMO service providers in the Norwegian market. In our view, the importance of the oil and gas industry to Norway, in conjunction with Apply’s market position, further enhances the strength of the tenant’s credit. Additionally, we were pleased to yet again be working with a leading private equity company, demonstrating our longstanding strength and expertise in working with this sector.”

Egil Stokka, Senior Partner of HitecVision, added, “We are delighted to complete this transaction with W. P. Carey, enabling us to release capital for other projects. W. P. Carey’s financial strength, experience working with global private equity firms and their track record of delivery in the Norwegian market made them an ideal counterparty in this transaction.”

Both CPA®:17 – Global and CPA®:18 – Global seek to invest in a diversified portfolio of income-producing commercial properties and real estate-related assets both domestically and internationally. CPA®:17 – Global is closed to new investors while CPA®:18 – Global remains open.