Propinvest has announced the completion of the GBP 1.9bn acquisition of the global headquarters of Banco Santander in Madrid's Boadilla del Monte, which it says is the largest single European real estate acquisition ever completed.

Bank debt to assist the acquisition was provided by a consortium of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland, HSH Nordbank and Bayerische Landesbank. The Santander headquarters complex comprises 175,000 square metres of offices and ancillary space on a site of 165 hectares, and houses the workplace of more than 9,000 employees.

The property is secured on a 40-year triple net lease (without break) payable by Banco Santander, with a rental cash flow that increases annually on a compound and upward-only basis by 175 per cent of the prevailing Eurozone consumer price index inflation rate.

The initial annual rental income is EUR83million, and the rent and inflation-linked uplifts provide an anticipated nominal value of EUR9bn over the term of the lease.

Banco Santander, the world's fourth largest bank by market capitalisation and its third most profitable, operating principally in Spain, the UK, other parts of Europe and Latin America. It has 129,000 employees, 65 million customers, more than 10,000 branches and 2.3 million shareholders.

'This highly complex transaction has been undertaken in extremely challenging financial markets,' says a Propinvest spokesman. 'To fund this transaction in such an environment is a testament to the quality and opportunity of this unique investment. We are grateful to our banking partners and our professional team.'