CapMan acquires two retail properties in Turku

Capman, a Finnish private equity firm, has acquired two retail properties in the Finnish city of Turku through its fund CapMan RE II.

The properties were purchased from Swedish private equity real estate firm Niam and Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds. The two properties were part of a portfolio which Niam Fund III and Whitehall Street acquired from the Finnish real estate company Sponda in February of this year. They consist of a 30-year-old 12,700 square meter building which has been fully let to Finnish department store Stockmann and a 38-year-old building with 8,600 square meters of lettable space, which is fully leased to several tenants.

CapMan manages two real estate funds. CapMan Real Estate I invests in commercial properties in the Helsinki metropolitan area. CapMan RE II, launched in April with €600 million ($833 million) in firepower, invests in commercial properties and property development targets throughout Finland. The second fund is the first to exclusively target development opportunities in Finland. 

In July, Capman acquired Turku shopping center development Skanssin Kauppakeskus, which is being developed by the Hartela Group, for an undisclosed amount. The developers of that project predict that once it is completed in April 2009, Skanssi will attract some 4.5 million visitors annually. Turku is located Northwest of Helsinki.

Established in 1989, CapMan manages Nordic buyout, mezzanine, technology, life science and real estate funds with approximately  €3 billion ($4 billion) in total capital. The firm has offices in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo and has invested in nearly 30 real estate assets and exited from 22.