M&G Real Estate acquires the leasehold of, Blekholmen 1, an office scheme in central Stockholm for €230m (£196m) from NIAM. The acquisition was made on behalf of the global real estate fund manager’s core European property strategy, managed by David Jackson and Simon Ellis.
Located next to Stockholm’s Central Station, the 34,000m² building is multi-let to 30 tenants and has recently undergone significant refurbishment.
The deal marks M&G Real Estate’s largest single continental European acquisition, surpassing the €208 million acquisition of Market Central Da Vinci in Rome, a joint venture with GWM Group, announced earlier in the year.
M&G Real Estate’s existing portfolio in Sweden is comprised of 44,400m² of assets across the office, logistics and retail sectors, collectively valued at €83m. Including assets in Denmark and Finland, its existing portfolio in the Nordics region is valued €256m.
David Jackson, fund manager at M&G Real Estate, says: “This deal in Stockholm’s Central Business District is now our fund’s single largest acquisition to date, again considerably increasing our average transaction size. We continue to raise and deploy significant capital, targeting major European cities where prime assets in core locations benefit from strong rental growth and give our investors long-term income driven returns.”
In August, M&G Real Estate announced that it had appointed Thorsten Slytå to manage Nordic assets, and support the investment ambitions of the business in this key European region, based out of M&G Real Estate’s new Stockholm office.
Thorsten Slytå, Director, Nordic Region at M&G Real Estate, adds: “Against the backdrop of Stockholm’s buoyant economy and office real estate market, demonstrated by the sector’s low vacancy rate of 3 per cent, rental growth is being pushed upwards and investor appetite remains strong for core assets. Blekholmen 1 provided a unique investment opportunity for our investors seeking access to this well-established market.”
Including this latest acquisition, the European core property strategy has deployed over €1bn of capital since March 2015, with acquisitions also made in Italy, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Portugal and France.
