News | Real Estate

Monday 22nd January 2007

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP's real estate department has advised CBRE Investors on the sale of four properties to Athens Investments Ltd, a joint venture set up between Chelsfield Partners LLP and Mission Capital plc. The mixed portfolio of offices and warehousing was sold for £36 million and represent the last of the assets in CBRE Investors' Strategic Partners UK Fund 1, a closed fund set up by SJ Berwin in 2001.  It follows the sale of the Javelin Portfolio, a portfolio of ten properties of offices, retail warehousing and industrial stock sold at the end of 2004.

The SJ Berwin team was led by Associate Darren Rogers, assisted by Nicola Winslow. Michael Collins, partner at Goodman Derrick advised the purchaser assisted by Lai Kong.

SJ Berwin had advised on the fund throughout its existence.

For further information please contact:
Darren Rogers on +44 (0)20 7111 2794, email darren.rogers@sjberwin.com or Karen Roberts on +44 (0)20 7111 2578, email karen.roberts@sjberwin.com 

• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership.  SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Paris.
  
  
• SJ Berwin LLP was named ‘UK Firm of the Year’ at the 2005 Legal Week Awards.  The award recognised SJ Berwin’s five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
  
  
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 118 staff of which 20 are partners in London and 50 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation and Real Estate Funds.  In addition, there are 3 dedicated real estate tax partners and 1 dedicated real estate partner in Paris.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and with the international offices.  The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
  
  
• The Real Estate Team is Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005.  It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.
  
  
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.