Barings Real Estate Advisers has bought its first retail asset in Italy.

The investment manager said the Nuovo Borgo retail centre in Asti was bought for €51.5m for the manager’s core strategy.

The 16,976sqm asset was sold by Warburg-HIH for one of its pan-European core investment funds.

Gunther Deutsch, European head of transactions at Barings Real Estate Advisers, said: “There is limited competition in the region, meaning the asset is a well established market leader in multi-tenanted retail in Northern Italy and is also well let to a strong mix of tenants.”

The investment, Deutsch said, provides an attractive yield and opportunity to drive further value through a targeted asset management programme.

Tenants include Mediaworld, Calzedonia and Pandora.

The deal follows Barings’ first Italian investment in December.