ING Real Estate is pleased to announce it has acquired a portfolio of 25 supermarkets in the South-West of Sweden from ICA, a leading consumer goods retailer in Sweden. ICA will lease back the properties for average periods of more than 10 years. The purchase price is approximately €93 million.
The 25 ICA supermarkets will be added to the launching portfolio of the ING Real Estate Nordic Property Fund, expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2006. The Fund will invest in core and value added commercial real estate mainly retail and office properties in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The launching portfolio will also include the Swedish Coop Norden portfolio, acquired in December 2005 for approximately €445 million.
Pieter Hendrikse, CEO of ING Real Estate Investment Management Europe: "Nordic real estate has an excellent risk/return profile and many institutional investors are looking for opportunities to increase their weighting to the region. The positive outlook for Nordic real estate is underpinned by strong fundamentals. These are stable economies that are predicted to outperform EU economic growth average in coming years. The ING Real Estate Nordic Property Fund enables investors to diversify into the Nordics with the added benefit of investing with the worlds leading real estate investment manager with a strong track record of performance."
Source: ING Real Estate
