Norwegians buy bank

Confidence in investment recovery in the past year is evident in the €3m-plus sale to Norwegian buyers of a Bank of Ireland bank branch in Cork’s Wilton suburb.

Scandinavian family trust, Adel Crest, has now added the €3m bank buy at Wilton to its earlier €15m plus investment swoop, (reported here in January), on offices in Cork Airport Business Park, and the same trust is actively pursuing other Cork and Irish purchases, according to sources.

The Bank of Ireland branch at Wilton went to market in January 2013 with Margaret Kelleher of Lisney, guiding €2.5m for a receiver, and was sale agreed later that year before a difficulty arose. It was re-offered to the market, and went to a best bids process by Christmas — by which time a new swathe of investor interest became evident.

It’s understood that just less than a dozen interested parties submitted best bids, and the price was pushed from the initial €2.5m-plus to just over €3m. The Norwegian buyers were represented by Michelle McGarry of Colliers in Dublin, and the investment shows a circa 9% return.

Ms McGarry also represented Adel Crest in their €15.1 m buy at the Airport Business Park, which also exceeded its c €13.5 million guide via joint agents Lisney and DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, bringing the buyer’s spend so far to over €18m in Cork alone.

Both buys will be free of Capital Gains Tax if held for seven years following a year’s extension in Budget 2014.

The 7,100 sq ft Wilton B of I bank branch had been bought by a private investor as part of a sale and leaseback from the bank in 2006 on a 25 year lease for a return at the time of just over 3%. Now, the yield is over 9% to its new owners, with an annual rent of €292,000, with a break option in 2021. The sale was instructed by receivers Michael Cotter and Ronan Murray of Ernst & Young. The B of I stand-alone branch is next to the Wilton Shopping centre, and adjacent to CUH.

Details: Lisney, 021-4275079; Colliers, 01-6333700