CBRE Global Investors is buying its first asset for a €500m German pension fund mandate.
The Verwaltungsgesellschaft für Versorgungswerke (VGV), a pension fund for Berlin doctors and chemists, chose CBRE GI to invest in global real estate early last year, according to a source.
The investment manager is now close to completing the purchase of an office property in the UK. The deal, for the Brindleyplace offices in central Birmingham let to RBS, will be the investment manager’s first for the fund.
The property is currently owned by investment company Tritax.
The mandate is at least the second major account CBRE GI has bagged with a German pension fund in the past 18 months. In late 2013, the Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) awarded a €500m mandate to CBRE Global Investors to invest in global real estate markets.
BVK had awarded the mandate “in a bid to diversify its exposure to the asset class, targeting property types across geographies, capital structures and risk profiles”.
Early last year, VGV, through Union Investment’s Institutional Property arm, bought 60 Holborn Viaduct in central London for around £250m in a joint venture with Hines. The building is let to Amazon as its UK headquarters.
Mercer Investment Consulting advises VGV on its real estate investments.
UK regional real estate investment volumes received a boost this week with the £219m sale of three assets by British Land to Legal & General Property. Assets in Birmingham, Hull and Maidenhead changed hands in an off-market deal.
