One of the Netherlands’ largest pension schemes has committed an additional €100m to Barings’ open-ended European Core Property Fund (BECPF) as part of its European core real estate allocation.
The €70bn PMT – the industry scheme for Dutch metalworkers and mechanical engineers – made an initial investment of €150m in 2017 and was one of the cornerstone investors in BECPF.
Last year, the fund’s gross asset value increased to almost €1bn, and during the past 12 months, it achieved a net return of 15.3% based on INREV guidelines, according to PMT.
It said the target net return of BECPF was 7-9% after management fees, with a maximum loan to value of 30%.
The fund owns various assets across the retail, logistics and office sectors in locations including London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Lille, Malmö and Madrid.
The pension fund said Barings had expressed an intention to increase exposure to residential property, in particular in high-growth cities.
Since 2014, PMT has committed €1.4bn in total to European core real estate.
Its €9bn real estate portfolio includes direct investments in the Netherlands as well as indirect investments across Europe, all managed by its fiduciary manager MN.
Hartwig Liersch, chief investment officer at PMT, said that system of add-on investments – such as the additional allocation to the Barings fund – increased efficiency for the pension scheme through benefits of scale.
Jeroen Reijnoudt, principal portfolio manager at MN, said the BECPF fully met the criteria for a core portfolio, including its positioning, returns, capital appreciation and sustainability.
Barings raised €506m for the fund when it launched last year.
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