Grosvenor Fund Management, the international property investment management group, is planning to open an office in Stockholm, Sweden, as it eyes further deals in Scandinavia.
The London-based firm already has eight offices in major cities, being Liverpool, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Luxembourg, Philadelphia, Shanghai, and Tokyo. However it is yet to open in the Nordic region, where the company believes there to be opportunities.
Speaking ahead of an announcement today of a Swedish property deal, James Raynor, chief investment officer and director of GFM Continental Europe, said Grosvenor was currently working on the plan for the additional office, while it also lined up its next European fund, likely to be an urban retail property offering.
Grosvenor Fund Management said it had led a consortium in buying a SEK 2.4 billion (€268 million) retail property portfolio in Sweden from Unibail Rodamco. The consortium comprised Grosvenor, Bouwinvest REIM, on behalf of bpfBOUW, the Dutch pension fund for the construction workers industry, and an unnamed major Canadian institutional investor.
According to the firm in a statement, the consortium has bought four retail properties consisting of three shopping centres in the Stockholm region and a prime supermarket investment in Helsingborg.
The four assets are Haninge Centrum, Väsby Centrum, Balsta Centrum and a property let to ICA Maxi which represent some 98,000 square metres of space.
“The acquisition is part of the three consortium investors’ European investment programs, and represents a long-term commitment to the Swedish property market,” said Grosvenor.
It added: “The acquisition furthermore enhances GFM’s considerable retail presence in Continental Europe, where Grosvenor has been active in the retail sector since 1996 and currently manage two retail specific funds and other retail properties with total assets of €1.1 billion.”
Raynor added in the statement: “We are always looking for opportunities that will create value for our investor partners, and have been looking at the Swedish market for some time. The fundamentals of the Swedish retail market actively support growth in the sector and the acquisition of this portfolio reflects our confidence in the market. We will continue to monitor the market for acquisition opportunities in the future”.
The consortium was advised by Cederquist, Sweco, RSD Pronordia, KPMG and Cushman & Wakefield. SEB provided financing.
PS: See next month's issue of PERE for an interview with Grosvenor Fund Management.
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