CBRE Global Investment Partners (GIP), the strategic partnership division of parent company CBRE Global Investors (GI), has acquired the BIG Shopping Center in Copenhagen for around €150 million, PERE understands.
The acquisition by GIP and Portus Retail, founded by former Revolution Property partner Peter Todd, was made on behalf of the European Co-Investment Fund (ECF), and is the fourth purchase from the vehicle. The seller is NREP, the Nordic private equity real estate firm. GIP and Portus were unavailable for comment on the sale price.
The 492,000 square foot shopping complex is 98 per cent leased to 26 retail tenants including Fotex, H&M, Power and Nike, and also includes food and leisure spaces. It is located in an affluent catchment area of 1.7 million people, in the northwestern part of the Danish capital. The Danish economy has been performing well recently with a low unemployment rate and a strong gross domestic product forecast, which has in turn helped to drive retail demand in the country.
Jeremy Plummer, head of EMEA and chief executive officer at GIP, said: “This is the fourth acquisition for the ECF fund and BIG was a great opportunity to buy a well-performing asset from within the retail sector.”
Portus was founded this year after Todd left London-based Resolution Property, a London-based firm that specializes in the investment and management of pan-European retail assets.
Todd said: “Portus Retail was established with the objective of creating and managing high performance retail environments and destinations across Europe. The acquisition of BIG is a perfect example of the type of opportunities we will be focusing on.”
In April, Plummer, the man behind the rapid growth of GIP, was appointed as CBRE GI’s head of Europe. The firm said it was looking to make fewer indirect investments via funds and more outlays with operating businesses via joint ventures and investment clubs.
In February, GIP announced the final closing of the ECF, having raised a total of $840 million of equity from six investors. The value-add fund targets a 15 percent net internal rate of return (IRR). At the final close, the firm had committed $231 million of the fund’s capital to three transactions including a 4.7 million square foot French logistics portfolio, two high street retail assets in central Madrid and a 2.1 million square foot logistics development site inside the M25, London’s orbital motorway.
GIP and Portus were advised by Danish law firm Pelsner and Capital Investment, while NREP was advised by Accura and Sadolin Albaek and JLL.
GIP had $14 billion in assets under management as of March 31.
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try to sign in again. If the problem persists, please email: 
