CIC, AEW buy €1.3bn CBRE Global Investors retail portfolio

China Investment Corporation and AEW Europe have bought a €1.3bn European retail portfolio from CBRE Global Investors.

The Chinese sovereign wealth fund and affiliates of AEW Europe bought 10 retail assets in Belgium and France.

The Celsius portfolio was sold by CBRE GI’s Retail Property Fund France Belgium, which will be wound up following the sale.

Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation (GIC) and Dutch pension manager APG were investors in the fund.

A source with knowledge of the assets told IP Real Estate that two Belgian shopping centres were the portfolio’s main selling point. 

The properties, near Antwerp in Waasland and Wijnegem, are worth almost half of the entire fund’s investment, the source said.

Eight assets in France, including La Vache Noire in the south of Paris and high street retail assets, made up the closed-ended fund’s portfolio.

The fund’s manager Marc Reijnen said it had delivered an “exceptional performance” for its limited partners, with a total return ”well in excess of the target IRR of 9.5%”.

The fund, created in 2003, bought and sold 26 retail assets, he said.