Danish boutique investment manager Rubik Properties has secured a €400m refinancing from Finnish lender Nordea for its Commercial Real Estate Denmark (CRED) platform, in the largest of a string of major debt transactions announced this week.
The firm said the loan “supports the continued development of the CRED portfolio, which is primarily owned by Danish pension funds and managed by Rubik”. The portfolio comprises high-quality commercial real estate assets across the office, retail and logistics sectors, with a primary focus on office properties in the Copenhagen area.
“This refinancing […] reflects strong lender confidence in the portfolio’s quality, its cash-flow resilience and the long-term fundamentals of the Copenhagen office market,” the company said.
Also this week, Pandion sealed a €240m project financing agreement with Apollo for the development of the Officehome Beat office project in Munich’s Werksviertel district. The project, comprising around 33,000sqm of gross floor space, is fully let to Siemens AG as a single tenant.
Reinhold Knodel, CEO of Pandion, said: “With an internationally renowned financing partner and a blue-chip tenant such as Siemens, the project underlines the attractiveness of our Officehome concept in top German locations.”
Other major loans granted this week include Aareal Bank’s €155m facility for a Polish retail portfolio and JP Morgan’s €200m five-year loan to fund DFI’s Spanish affordable housing portfolio, Niding.
| Recently completed deals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset type | Location | Buyer | Vendor | Size | Price (mln) | Key facts |
| eight Auchan-anchored hypermarkets | retail | Poland | Shopper Park Plus | Auchan and Ceetrus | 208,000m2 | €210 | The portfolio’s yield on the purchase price is approximately 9.1%. |
| five logistics facilities | logistics | Germany | Prologis | Union Investment | 139,000m2 | €160 | The five facilities – two in Dortmund and one each in Bönen, Herne and Worms - are fully leased. |
| Sonnenstraße 9 | mixed | Munich | Manova Partners | Hines | 55,790sqft | €70 | The lower floors are let to gym operator Body & Soul and the upper floors to several office tenants. |
| Bavaria House | mixed | London | Unnamed buyer | Junhao | 229,616sqft | £60 (€70) | The building features a consented redevelopment plan totaling 340,085sqft. |
| four industrial units | logistics | Maidstone, UK | Aberdeen | Clearbell Property Partners III | 190,839sqft | £44 (€51) | The assets are home to Zehnder Group, Envirotainer and Medequip Assistive Technology. |
| PRO shopping centre and Amstetten West retail park | retail | Austria | ZDR | Rutter Immobilien | NA | €50 | This is the second purchase from the Rutter Immobilien group. |
| 22-24 Princes St. | office | London | Singapore-based private investor | Private UK investor | NA | £32.5 (€38) | The price paid reflects circa 3.75% net initial yield. |
| Cuckoo Bridge Retail Park | retail | Dumfries, UK | Unnamed buyer | NewRiver | 130,200sqft | £26.5 (€31) | The asset was sold for a net initial yield of 6.9%. |
| Casaforte platform | self storage | Italy | Ardian | Cesare Carcano | 24 assets | NA | The deal is part of Ardian’s strategy to develop a European self storage group. |
| Hawthorn House | office | Limerick, UK | Arkéa’s SCPI Transitions Europe | Fine Grain Property | 50,000sqft | NA | Hawthorn House was developed by Fine Grain in 2019 and is fully let to General Motors and Kneat Solutions. |
| Tegut Group | mixed | Germany | Edeka | Migros | 200 stores | NA | The sale is part of Migros’ plans to exit the German market. |
| Assets on the market | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset type | Location | Vendor | Size | Price (mln) | Broker | Key facts |
| Built-to-rent portfolio | living | UK | Apache Capital, Harrison St, NFU Mutual | 5 assets | €1000 | CBRE | New York Square in Leeds is one of the five assets for sale. |
| 1,554 co-living homes | living | London | Re:shape | 1,554 homes | £200 (€232) | Savills | The owner is seeking around £200m of institutional joint venture equity to deliver four projects. |
| One Molesworth Street | office | Dublin | Henderson Park | NA | €110 | JLL | An earlier attempt to sell for €150m+ failed in 2022. |
| trio of shopping centres | retail | UK | Delancey | NA | £40 (€46) | Knight Frank | The portfolio comprises the High Chelmer Shopping Centre in Chelmsford, The Howard Centre in Welwyn Garden City and Royal Priors in Leamington Spa. |
| data centre development | data centre | Blackpool, UK | Elite UK REIT | 240,000sqft | £40 (€46) | NA | The site benefits from planning permission for a 240,000 sq ft data centre scheme. |
| former St Mary’s nursing home | mixed | Dublin | NA | 13.47 acres | €40 | Avison Young | Reddy Architecture + Urbanism has drawn up a masterplan comprising c.360 apartments for the site. |
| Morgan Quarter shopping centre | retail | Cardiff, UK | Greater Manchester Pension Fund | 381,000sqft | £27.5 (€32) | Knight Frank | The sale reflects a blended net initial yield of 9%. |
| Westend Commercial Village | mixed | Dublin | NA | 62,500sqft | €14.5 | Savills | The asset is selling for a 7.06% NIY. |
| Central St Giles office building | office | London | 38,000m2 | NA | NA | The building was bought in 2022 for $1bn. | |
| Kaiserdamm 80/81 | hotel | Berlin | RBB media GmbH | 7,308m2 | NA | NA | The property is a multi-tenant building, leased to several tenants and primarily used as offices, a hotel, and a bowling alley. |
| Recently completed loans | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lender(s) | Borrower(s) | Asset(s) | Loan Size (mln) | Key facts |
| Nordea | Rubik Properties | CRED portfolio | €400 | The portfolio is primarily owned by leading Danish pension funds and managed by Rubik. |
| Apollo | Pandion | Officehome Beat office project in Munich | €240 | Siemens will be the sole tenant of the new building, which will offer 33,000m2 of gross floor area. |
| JP Morgan | DFI | Spanish affordable housing portfolio | €200 | The new five-year facility replaces an existing loan obtained by DFI’s Niding arm. |
| Aareal Bank | Shopper Park Plus | Polish retail portfolio | €155 | The loan includes an investment tranche up to €110m as well as a tranche necessary for the financing of the VAT related to the transfer of the properties. |
| OakNorth and NatWest | Honey | Unsecured | £80 (€93) | The new revolving credit facility will fund the housebuilder’s expansion across Yorkshire and the Midlands. |
| Pbb | Garbe Industrial | logistics centre in Werne, North Rhine-Westphalia | €80 | The follow-up, three-year financing is for a multi-tenant logistics centre. |
| Santander, BBVA and Buenavista Equity Partners | Gemswell Surf Madrid | artificial surf lagoon in Madrid | €60 | The landmark sports infrastructure project is scheduled to open in Spring 2027. |
| Maslow Capital | CIO Capital and MM Capital | Dublin hotel scheme | €54 | The development loan will support construction of the scheme. |
| New mandates/JVs and funds on the market | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm | Fund/mandate/JV | Strategy | Details |
| Patrizia and Cosimo Investment Group | Berlin residential development programme | Developing over 2,000 residential units in Berlin | Patrizia has committed €200m of equity to this strategy within an overall development programme of €500m. |
| DCM, TPG Angelo Gordon | Dutch outdoor industrial venture | Investing €200m in IOS sites across the Netherlands | The JV has completed the first acquisition in Schijndel. |
| Zaga Capital Partners | ZAGA German Real Asset Opportunities II | Investing in German residential for rent assets | The fund has secured equity of €500m at first close. |
| KKR and Puma Property Finance | UK living sector lending | Funding best-in-class residential, Build-To-Rent and student accommodation schemes | The three-year partnership will look to provide up to £500m in senior development and stabilisation loans. |
