The major Swiss bank UBS AG and the US real estate developer Tishman Speyer have sold the Frankfurt Opera Tower. The new owner is a joint venture between the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and a fund led by J.P. Morgan.
The Opera Tower, which was designed by the architect Christoph Mäckler and completed in 2009, features 67,200 sqm of usable space over 42 stories. 95% of the office space is currently rented, with the largest tenant (at 28,000 sqm) being UBS itself, which has set up its German headquarters there.
A Linklaters team led by Hanns-William Mülsch (corporate/real estate) comprehensively advised UBS AG on the sale of its share of the Opera Tower.
The team also included Roland Fabian (real estate/tax) and Dr Tobias Nuß (corporate/real estate).
According to media reports, the purchase price was approximately €550m. The sale of the Opera Tower was thus one of the largest single-asset transactions in Europe and, with the Sony Center, the largest in Germany this year.
The Linklaters team had already advised UBS on the creation of the Opera Tower joint venture with Tishman in 2007.
