Rasmala Investment Bank, a leading alternative investment manager, has announced that its North American real estate income fund has acquired a prime research and development facility in Philadelphia, US, for $61 million.

Located in the heart of the Philadelphia Navy Yard complex, one of the premier business parks in the Northeastern US, the property is 100% single-let to Axalta Coating Systems, a global leader in performance coatings for the transportation and industrial sector.

The 175,000 sq ft research and development facility is one of Axalta’s four global innovation centres and one of the largest performance coatings research and development facilities in the world.

On the strategic buy, Senior Executive Officer Eric Swats said: "We continue to add to our growing and diversified portfolio of high-quality assets and are actively looking for opportunities to deploy a further $1 billion in North America."

The Axalta facility, he stated, was a high-quality asset with strong and steady cashflows.

On its future plans, Rasmala said it aims to expand the geographic footprint in Europe, mainly in the UK and the Netherlands by acquiring more strategic assets and also in the US.

Established in 1999, Rasmala is a leading alternative investment firm which manages assets on behalf of Gulf-based investors including pension funds, family offices, corporations, endowments and financial institutions.

Recently it had sold two Amazon logistics assets in Dortmund, Germany for 155 million, generating a 17% IRR return for its investors.-TradeArabia News Service