Microsoft UK’s head office sold to Korean investors for $130 mn

A consortium of London-based Valesco Group and South Korea’s AIP Asset Management has acquired Microsoft’s headquarter office in Britain for 100 million pounds ($130 million) on behalf of South Korean institutional investors.

They bought the 246,138-square-feet property in Reading from Solutus, a UK loan servicing and advisory firm and FI Real Estate Management, according to a statement released by Valesco this week.

The campus comprising three buildings is entirely leased to the world’s largest software company at an average rent of 27 pounds per square feet.

The price of the deal represents a net initial yield of 6.6 percent, an attractive yield for South Korean institutional investors who prefer single tenant, long-term leased properties.

It was not immediately known which of South Korean institutional investors backed the acquisition.

Reading, west of London, acts as the UK’s “Silicon Valley” cluster for technology firms including Oracle, Huawei, Nvidia, Symantec and Verizon.

Earlier this year, a joint venture between Valesco and AIP Asset (formerly FG Asset Management) sourced a $340 million deal, under which South Korean institutional investors acquired Cannon Bridge House in the City of London from the Blackstone Group.

By Chang Jae Yoo

yoocool@hankyung.com