HM Riverdeep to pay around €700 per sq m on Green

Educational software publisher, HM Riverdeep, is set to rank among the highest-paying tenants in Dublin city following a decision to move its Irish headquarters to developer Garrett Kelleher's building at 75 St Stephen's Green.

The company, which is controlled by former Credit Suisse Group banker, Barry O'Callaghan, has agreed to sub-lease around 464.5sq m (5,000sq ft) at a rate of around €700 per sq m (€65 per sq ft), making it one of the most expensive headline rents secured this year. HM Riverdeep will be based on the fourth floor of the redeveloped, former Department of Justice building and is sub-letting the space on a short-term basis from solicitors Maples and Calder.

It is understood the luxurious suite will accommodate the firm's executives while an additional 1,394sq m (15,000sq ft) will be acquired elsewhere in the city for the expanded group's Irish operations.

Keith O'Neill of Atisreal, the agency acting for HM Riverdeep in this larger transaction, declined to comment on where the rest of the organisation would be based or why the company has decided to opt for two separate Irish offices when the market trend has been towards consolidation.

However, he confirmed the educational publisher was looking for another short-term lease on this second property.

HM Riverdeep was created in November last year when the privately controlled Riverdeep, which had an estimated value of $1-$1.5 billion, purchased Houghton Mifflin, one of the biggest textbook publishers in the US, in a mammoth $4.9 billion reverse takeover deal.

The transaction, valued as the second largest in Irish corporate history, transformed O'Callaghan's small school software firm into a $5 billion publishing giant.

Two months ago, the multimillion-euro entrepreneur followed up this first corporate coup with an equally audacious $4 billion bid for publisher Reed Elsevier's US education arm. Under the deal, which is ranked as the fourth largest by any Irish firm, HM Riverdeep will grow into an organisation with an enterprise value of more than $10 billion.

However, the two highly-leveraged mergers mean the company's debt levels have also mushroomed to an estimated $7.5 billion. Although the upheaval throughout global credit markets has forced a number of takeover deals off the table, HM Riverdeep recently insisted its purchase of Harcourt Education was "still on track", stressing there was "no conditionality involved" in debt financing arrangements.

In its relocation to 75 St Stephen's Green from its premises on Upper Hatch Street, the educational publishing giant will be joining other high-paying, blue-chip tenants such as Dolmen Stockbrokers and Avoca Capital.

HM Riverdeep's global headquarters will be based in the Cayman Islands after the company decided to create a new group holding company designed to take advantage of the tax haven's looser regulatory environment.