Ares Management buys London office leased to Netflix for £160 million
Ares Management Corp. has acquired a Netflix property in London, signaling the alternative investment firm’s enduring confidence in the U.K. capital’s office sector.
The Los Angeles-based group has purchased the Copyright Building at 30 Berners Street in Fitzrovia, London, for approximately £160 million ($216 million). Bloomberg.
This purchase price is slightly below what the company’s previous owner, German fund manager Union Investment, paid in 2017.
Although the facilities were officially leased to Capital Business Services, the entire office space was transferred to the publishing giant netflix.
Ares is among a group of alternative asset managers currently targeting London real estate that has been neglected in the remote working era triggered by the pandemic. These companies are now betting that the lack of new development projects will increase both rental rates and occupancy figures. In recent years Ares has aggressively acquired sites in London’s prestigious West End, including assets at 45 Pall Mall and 101 New Cavendish Street.
“We believe the acquisition of the Copyright Building is consistent with our thesis of focusing on high-quality, well-located assets that benefit from the strong rental growth we are seeing in many Central London submarkets,” said Wilson Lamont, European real estate partner and co-head of Ares. He did not disclose the purchase price.
Fitzrovia is located on the periphery of the West End commercial market, which has recently become a magnet for investors. According to Bloomberg, deals worth £5.3bn were recorded in the region last year, exceeding the £4.2bn recorded in the City of London., Data from broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. is cited.
“This is a good time to create more room for maneuver for our European property funds through strategic sales,” said Jacob Thompson, senior investment manager for the UK and Ireland at Union Investment, according to Bloomberg.
Beyond Ares, Elliott Management Corp. and Strategic Value Partners have also entered this market. Traditionally, this was the domain of institutional funds and wealthy individuals who accepted modest immediate returns in exchange for reliable, long-term rental income.
Netflix, Warner Bros. Withdrew offer to buy Discovery’s studio and broadcast assets
In a dramatic shift in the entertainment industry, Netflix withdrew its acquisition offer Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and broadcast assets. This sudden exit paves the way for Skydance-owned Paramount to potentially swallow its iconic Hollywood rival.
On Thursday, Warner’s board of directors announced that Paramount’s current offer to acquire the entire company for $31 per share exceeds the terms of the current deal. netflix. While Warner gave Netflix a 4-day deadline to submit a counter-offer, Netflix responded within 2 hours, refusing to increase its valuation. The streaming giant stated that the increased price point made the purchase “no longer financially attractive.”
“We believe we will be strong servants of Warner Bros..” “iconic brands,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a joint statement. “But this transaction was always a nice thing to do at the right price, it’s not something that should happen at any cost.”
Warner Bros. The Paramount-led takeover of Discovery will fundamentally redraw the maps of Hollywood and global media. The key distinction in the bidding war was scope: Netflix is looking solely for Warner’s production studio and streaming platform, while Paramount plans to acquire the entire company.
That means high-profile assets like HBO Max, the “Harry Potter” franchise and even CNN could eventually be consolidated under the same corporate umbrella as Paramount’s CBS, “Top Gun” and Paramount+ streaming service.
