Located at Praça D. João I, building Rialto has a total 4.700 sqm and is considered to be Porto’s first skyscraper. It is of mixed-use with offices, housing and retail.
This is the first significant sale announced by group Ageas Portugal, which develops its investment strategy in the office and operational real estate segments. The name of the buyer was not disclosed, but it is known that it is a national group.
The deal was advised commercially by CBRE and legally by Abreu Advogados.
Gilles Emond, Head of Real Estate at Grupo Ageas Portugal commented in a release that «following the acquisition of an office building during the Summer and the ongoing construction of Grupo Ageas Portugal’s headquarters in Porto and Lisbon, this sale is one more step within our strategy to rebalance our real estate investment portfolio. We will continue investing in the country’s main cities, focusing on core and core+ assets».
Nuno Nunes, Head of Capital Markets at CBRE Portugal, stated that «this transaction confirms the dynamics and resilience of the Portuguese real estate market and in particular that of the city of Porto, fulfilling Forbes’ magazine prediction which elected it one of the top European cities to invest in 2020. The Investors’ confidence on the national market, even in adversity, persists».
More recently, in August, the group announced the acquisition of office building Expo Tower, at Parque das Nações. Last year, the group acquired three buildings in Lisbon, at Castilho street, Entrecampos and Benfica. Right now, the company is developing its new headquarters in Lisbon and in Porto, which should be concluded next year.
It should be recalled that, at the end of October, Ageas advanced to Expresso that it intends to reinforce its real estate portfolio in Portugal with an additional investment of 150 million euro during the next 18 months, reaching 600 million euro by 2022. Offices and housing (including affordable housing) are on its plans.
