AXA Real Estate completes acquisition of core office building in Helsinki for €41 mln (FI)

AXA Real Estate Investment Managers, the leading real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, announces that it has completed the acquisition of a core office building in Helsinki for approximately €41 million from Aberdeen Real Estate Fund Finland. The acquisition was made on behalf of the Caesar Fund, a regulated fund for Italian institutional investors, launched by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers SGR, an Italian regulated subsidiary of AXA Real Estate.
A modern office property situated on Porkkalankatu  5, the building is within the district of Ruoholahti, a prime office location close to Helsinki’s central business district. The multi-let asset comprises approximately 12,000 m² with 114 parking spaces. The property is currently fully let to high quality blue chip tenants, with recently renegotiated lease agreements in place. An extensive €13.3 million renovation was undertaken in 2012 in order to upgrade its facilities.
The building also has high technical standards and has been awarded Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (‘LEED’) Gold certification, which is a globally recognized green building certification that acknowledges best-in-class energy and environmental strategies and practices.
The building is the first the Fund has acquired in Finland and is consistent with the Fund’s strategy to acquire well-let, core office buildings located on the periphery of central business districts in main European cities. The Fund’s last close was in October 2012, having raised €209 million in equity from 13 Italian institutional investors alongside AXA Insurance companies, exceeding its original target, giving it a total potential fund size of around €420 million once fully invested.
Giorgio Pieralli, Fund Manager of the Caesar Fund, commented: “This core, well-let asset exemplifies the type of high quality product that we seek to acquire for the Fund, and is exactly what our institutional investors want access to as they look to diversify their real estate holdings outside of Italy’’.
Source: AXA Real Estate