NREP strikes €650m Nordic exit

Nordic Real Estate Partners (NREP), the pan-Nordic real estate investment manager, has struck the largest portfolio sale of prime logistics properties in the Nordics and the largest exit by the firm since it was founded ten years ago.

The Denmark-based  firm said it had sold for approximately €650 million all the underlying assets in its NREP Logistics Fund and three Swedish properties from NREP’s C1 Fund, delivering “very strong risk-adjusted returns” to investors in the two underlying funds.

The portfolio consists of 28 modern logistics properties in distribution hubs across Sweden, Finland and Denmark with almost 7 million square feet in total of which a large part has been developed by NREP over the past six years. 

Bidders came from a wide variety of capital sources including sovereign wealth funds and even opportunistic funds, but the selected buyer is a consortium of four Danish pension funds. The consortium comprises a vehicle capitalized by the Medical Doctors’ Pension Fund (Lægernes Pensionskasse) together with the Danish Pension Fund for Engineers (DIP) and the pension fund for Danish lawyers and economists (JØP). PFA Pension, the largest private pension fund in Denmark and a current investor in NREP Logistics Fund, will re-invest part of its proceeds in the new vehicle. 

NREP has also agreed to continue to manage the portfolio.

In a statement, Rickard Dahlberg, co chief investment officer and partner, said: “We are very proud of having secured such a strong exit for our investors.” 

NREP was established in 2005 and in December last year hit a milestone by raising its largest ever fund. It closed at the hard cap of €400 million for the value-added NREP Nordic Strategies Fund having launched it the previous year.

The company's first fund came in 2006 when it raised €100 million for a multi-strategy fund. After that, it raised €556 million for a succession of single-sector funds, including the now exiting NREP Logistics Fund, until returning to a multi-strategy approach again.  NREP today has a team of more than 50 professionals and approximately €2.2 billion in assets under management.

CBRE advised NREP on the logistics sale along with Real Advokatbyrå and Bernstrom & Partners.