Alecta, Sweden’s largest occupational pension provider, has completed the sale of its UK real estate portfolio.
Goldman Sachs bought the portfolio of 26 properties for an undisclosed amount.
Previous media reports suggest the portfolio, which includes retail, office and industrial properties, is worth around £350m (€389m).
The Swedish institution took the decision to close its offices in the UK and US in April this and sell a portfolio of 48 real estate assets via advisory firm JLL in the two countries.
Per Frennberg, Alecta’s CIO, said high demand for real estate investments was an opportunity to restructure the way in which the organisation invested in the asset class.
“Our foreign operations have been extremely successful in consistently generating above-average returns, but they have always been a bit of an organisational anomaly in our streamlined business, which prioritises economies of scale within our investment strategy,” Frennberg said in April.
In 2015, Alecta – which has SEK732.5bn (€78.7bn) in pension assets – said it was cautiously optimistic about return prospects in the property markets in which it invested, despite higher prices.
The fund recently invested in Värmdö shopping centre, buying the Swedish retail asset from its joint owners Rockspring and Vencom Property Partners for SEK421m.
