AXA Investment Managers–Real Assets has revealed the acquisition of a €310m German healthcare portfolio, following an announcement it had begun investing in the Finnish market.
The Paris-headquartered fund manager bought the 17 healthcare assets in Western Germany from private-equity giant Blackstone.
This transaction has been made on behalf of a consortium of investors comprising AXA insurance companies and two funds for retail investors, AXA Selectiv’ Immo and AXA Selectiv’ Immoservice.
The transaction means AXA IM-RE manages more than €850m of healthcare assets across Europe.
It follows a recent €65m investment in Finnish healthcare property and similar investments last year in Italy and Spain.
The 177,264 sqm portfolio in Germany includes 16 freehold nursing homes and one rehabilitation centre and contains 2,788 beds.
The assets are operated under lease contracts with five separate operators, including one of Germany’s largest nursing home operators, which occupies 13 of the properties.
The majority of the portfolio is located in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, while two homes are in Baden-Württemberg, two in Bavaria and one asset is situated in Hesse.
AXA IM-RE said demographic trends in these parts of Germany was expected to fuel further growth in the market for nursing homes over the coming decade.
Hideki Kurata, head of alternatives and special situations, said the deal illustrated AXA IM-RE’s “continued commitment to alternative real estate asset classes and further strengthens our foothold across all of our preferred sub-sectors, with European healthcare demonstrating particularly favourable investment fundamentals”.
