Blackstone has agreed a deal to acquire a substantial part of Facebook's new European headquarters in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
The US private equity giant's offer of about €400 million saw off intense competition from a range of parties, including Tishman Speyer and Deka Immobilien. The price agreed comfortably exceeds the guide price of €395 million set when the investment was brought to the market last September.
The deal, which is subject to approval from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), will see Blackstone secure ownership of four buildings comprising 31,536sq m (339,456sq ft) of office space within the wider 83,612.7sq m (900,000sq ft) Facebook campus which is in the process of being delivered on the former AIB Bankcentre site.
The properties were brought to the market by agent Cushman & Wakefield on behalf of the Serpentine consortium, a syndicate of private individuals and companies assembled by AIB Private Banking and Goodbody Stockbrokers. The Irish Times understands that contracts were exchanged between Blackstone and the vendors on Monday.
Facebook’s Ballsbridge campus is poised to become Facebook’s second largest campus globally, outsized only by its global headquarters at Menlo Park in California.
More than 60 Facebook teams will eventually be located in Ballsbridge. It will also be home to staff working for its subsidiary applications WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and its Oculus virtual reality unit.
The highest-profile element of the campus will face on to Merrion Road and is being developed by Johnny Ronan’s Ronan Group Real Estate. Fibonacci Square, as it will be known, is expected to comprise 34,838sq m (375,000sq ft) and has been fully let to Facebook on a 25-year lease commencing in 2022.
The four blocks being sold by the Serpentine consortium are also fully let to Facebook, and offer a weighted average unexpired lease term of more than 15 years.
The leases are held on full repairing and insuring terms, and benefit from five-yearly upward-only open market rent reviews, the next of which is due in October 2022.
