Letterkenny Retail Park has been sold to a massive investment firm that is based in the Gulf state of Bahrain.
Investcorp announced yesterday that they had aqcuired both the Letterkenny Retail Park and the Deerpark Retail Park in Killarney, County Kerry, for an undisclosed fee.
However a guide price when the properties were listed for sale had valued Letterkenny and Deerpark, as well as a retail park in Offaly, for a combined total of €67 million.
Letterkenny and Deerpark Retail Park were sold by former owners Alanis Capital, based in the US.
They had bought both Letterkenny and Deerpark, as well as two other retail parks, for a combined fee of €170 million in 2015.
While the exact financial details of the transaction were not revealed, Investcorp has a substantial amount of wealth both behind its backers as well as in the assets it holds and has invested in.
Investcorp has a total of $52 billion of assets under management worldwide, but the purchase of the two retail parks in Donegal and Kerry mark their first transaction made in Ireland.
They also mark the first time the massive Gulf investment firm has purchased a retail park in Europe.
The company’s largest external shareholder is Mubadala Investment Company – the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, which holds a 20% stake in Investcorp.
Investcorp’s main investors come from the Gulf states of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.
However they also have a range of international offices in the United States, Europe and Asia.
In a statement released on social media yesterday, Neil Hasson, the head of their European Real Estate Division said:
“This acquisition marks an expansion of our already growing real estate business in Europe, both into a new vertical of retail warehouse, but also our first transaction in Ireland.”
“Retail continues to create attractive investment opportunities with strong return potential for investors and supports local economies and communities.”
