OP Corporate Bank plc
OP Cooperative
Stock exchange release
31 January 2020 at 09.00 EET
OP Cooperative to sell and lease back the Vallila property
OP Cooperative, OP Financial Group’s central cooperative, has sold the Vallila property to a South Korean-Finnish consortium which includes Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, NH Investment & Securities (NHIS) and Shinhan Investment Corp. Seoul-based AIP Asset Management and Helsinki-based Avant Asset Management acted as co-investment managers for the deal. The value of the transaction is 480 million euros. OP Financial Group will continue operating in the property under a long-term lease agreement.
“The sale and leaseback of the Vallila property will considerably reduce OP Financial Group’s property risks and strengthen its capital base. It also frees up capital for increasing business, replacing external funding. Furthermore, the timing for the transaction was quite optimal because long-term interest rates and property investors’ net yield requirements are at record lows”, explains OP Financial Group’s CFO Vesa Aho.
The sale of the property will improve OP Financial Group’s CET1 ratio by some 0.2 percentage points. A capital gain of approximately 97 million euros will be recognised on the sale in OP Financial Group’s first quarter results 2020.
The Vallila property owned by OP Financial Group comprises a campus in Helsinki in the address Gebhardinaukio 1. The campus was fully completed in 2017. With a total leasable floor area of 74,150 square metres, the property accommodates approximately 6,000 people. Its tenants are OP Cooperative and Senate Properties (Finnish Tax Administration).
OP Corporate Bank plc
OP Cooperative
Tuuli Kousa
Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer
For more information, please contact:
OP Communications, tel. +358 50 523 9904, viestinta@op.fi
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OP Financial Group is Finland’s largest financial services group whose mission is to promote the sustainable prosperity, security and wellbeing of its owner-customers and business environment. OP Financial Group consists of 147 OP cooperative banks, its central cooperative OP Cooperative, and the latter's subsidiaries and affiliates. The Group has a staff of 12,000 and 2 million owner-customers. www.op.fi