Warba Bank picks Bentall Kennedy as real estate investment advisor in US Bank acquires ManpowerGroup HQ in Wisconsin
In line with its development strategy to position the bank as the Islamic Corporate and Investment Banking champion in Kuwait while reinforcing its international real-estate investment’s program, Warba Bank is proud to announce that it has recently signed a partnership agreement with Bentall Kennedy, one of the largest global real estate investment advisors in the USA. By the terms of the agreement, Bentall Kennedy is to represent Warba Bank, as its real estate investment’s advisor with a new US focused real estate investment mandate, and as co-investor. As part of this initiative, Warba bank has acquired the ManpowerGroup Headquarters, a 280,000-square foot office building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This investment is the first real estate transaction that Bentall Kennedy and Warba Bank have done in partnership.
The purchase price of the property is $66,500,000 which is 99 percent owned by Warba and 1 percent by Bentall Kennedy. Warba Bank’s investment in this property is approximately $29 million which is equivalent to KD8.8 million. This is expected to generate over 8 percent cash increase and IRR for Warba Bank after all expenses and taxes. About the bank’s new partnership with Bentall Kennedy, Shaheen Hamed AlGhanem, Warba Bank’s CEO said: “our partnership with Bentall Kennedy comes in-line with the bank’s vigorous international real estate investment program and fulfils our strategy which aims to diversify the income and grow the bank’s investment’s portfolio.” Al-Ghanem further elaborated that Warba bank aims to expand its real-estate portfolio in USA vertical markets and is currently studying a number of opportunities guaranteed to provide rewarding incomes and complies with the bank’s prime policy for investment and risk criteria.
He said: “the bank’s Investment Banking Group is fully committed to make risk mitigated investments strictly following the investment policies and procedures with the target of generating secured long term returns for the bank and its investors.”
The ManpowerGroup Headquarters is an institutionally maintained, Class A asset situated directly on the Milwaukee River in the Downtown West submarket of the city. The property is located one half mile north of the new Milwaukee Bucks arena, and adjacent to the broader $1 billion Wisconsin Entertainment District development. Boasting a modern design with elegant glass and masonry exterior, the office building was certified LEED Gold for its energy efficiency in 2007, and was awarded the Best New Development Office by the Business Journal Real Estate Awards in 2008. The company recently extended their headquarters lease through 2031.
Warba bank has recently acquired a newly constructed sole UK KIA vehicle imports/exports facility strategically located on Kiln Lane Industrial Estate, just one and a half miles from the docks at nearby Immingham, which receives imported vehicles from Korea to UK, and also from other manufacturing plants in Europe. The Ports of Immingham and Grimsby combined are the UK’s largest ports by tonnage, handling up to 60 million tones, including nearly 20 million tons of oil and 10 million tons of coal per annum.