Dublin-based property group Treasury Holdings has sold three British properties to three different purchasers for about €112 million. It will reinvest the funds in the British market.
The properties - Stuart House in Peterborough, South Barr House in Banbury, Oxfordshire, and Tolworth Tower in Kingston, Surrey - were sold through British property advisers GVA Grimley.
All three were part of an 11-strong property portfolio acquired by Treasury Holdings in a joint venture with GE Capital in 1997. All bar one of the properties, the redeveloped Travelodge hotel in Peterborough that is scheduled to open in December 2006, have now been sold.
Finance director Guy Leech welcomed the sales, saying he was delighted with the level of interest in the properties. "The British property market remains very attractive to investors due to long leases, transparency, rental growth and the prospect of long-term stability," he said. "We will continue to pursue opportunities in the UK market."
Treasury Holdings, which was set up in Dublin in 1989, has been active in the UK since 1997 and has a property portfolio valued at more than €2.2 billion.
The group, headed by developers Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett, said this week it had received planning permission from the Chinese authorities for the development of a 4.22 million square metre eco-city on an island 42km (26 miles) off the coast of Shanghai.
It is developing the project, billed as the world's first eco-city, in a 50-50 partnership with a Chinese state-controlled business called Shanghai Industrial Investment Company.
Treasury Holdings is seeking to take advantage of the booming property market in China, where yields are running at some 10 per cent.
Mr Barrett, the group's co- owner, has said that about one-third of Treasury Holdings will be in the Chinese market within three or four years.
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