Sirius buys BizSpace to enter UK

German business park investor Sirius Real Estate has bought UK workspace brand BizSpace for £390m. Sirius bought the holding company for the brand, Helix Investments, from Värde Partners, for £245m in cash and took on its debt of £146m. The business has an enterprise value of £380m. Sirius said the acquisition was a “highly attractive and strategically important opportunity” which would allow it to enter, at scale, an under-served wider UK market by snapping up an established platform. It added that there was a further opportunity to replicate the “success of the Sirius model” in the UK. The deal is conditional on Sirius raising £135m in equity to expand the business. BizSpace’s existing management team, including CEO John Spencer, finance director Tariq Khader and commercial director Mo Jiwaji, will remain with the business. The deal will increase Sirius’s gross asset value to €1.9bn and its rent roll to in excess of €153m. In its half-year results published this morning, Sirius, which is registered in Guernsey, said profit before tax had increased by 25.7% to €78.2m. To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews