GERMANY/UK - Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), the €43.2bn German pension fund, has sold two UK office blocks for £48m (€56.6m).
Germany's largest investor sold the assets from its €700m European property spezialfond, managed by Invesco Real Estate.
Aviva Investors acquired a six-storey office block in Manchester, which BVK has owned since 2001, and Fund manager Orchard Street bought the second asset, located in the City of London and let to Dresdner Bank (Commerzbank). BVK originally acquired the London asset in 2005.
A BVK spokeswoman said the scheme had sold the assets "for no other reason than to optimise the portfolio. We tend to buy and sell depending on where profit can be made, but there's no particular reason why we sold properties in the UK."
Invesco fund manager Bettina Knirsch said the current market offered "an excellent opportunity" to review allocations and to sell at strengthening prices.
"We have a long-term investment strategy," she told IPE Real Estate. "When prices are higher than average, we're prepared to sell for a decent price."
Knirsch said the fund manager regularly reviewed the 20-asset portfolio, and that it had asset-specific strategies in place. "If we have a ‘hold' strategy for a specific asset, we review it regularly. If you've held an asset for a long time, you could often be better off selling it if you can maximise the value earlier than expected."
BVK CIO Daniel Just confirmed earlier this month that the scheme plans to invest 1% in timber and 2% in infrastructure, with a further, unspecified allocation to private equity.
