French pension fund ERAFP has made its first real estate acquisitions in Spain and the UK via a mandate with AXA Real Estate.
L’Etablissement de Retraite Additionnelle de La Fonction Publique – France’s public sector pension fund – made the decision to invest abroad in 2013, its first venture into European real estate.
AXA Real Estate said it has now bought in Spain and the UK for the €17bn ($19.25bn) pension fund, having been mandated in July 2013 to source investments.
A third asset in Finland was also purchased for ERAFP, which is looking to invest up to €350m of capital over the next three years.
Last May, AXA Real Estate bought a Stockholm office property for SEK 546m (€60.4m). The purchase of the prime Blåfjäll 1 building in Kista was ERAFP’s first outside France.
AXA Real Estate has now invested €227m since being appointed. The latest assets, worth a combined €208m, add Madrid, London and Espoo to ERAFP’s portfolio.
AXA Real Estate said it had closed deals to buy Camomile Court in London and 2-4 Keilalahdentie in Espoo, as well as a 50% stake in Madrid’s Gran Via 37. AXA Real Estate’s French collective investment fund, managed by AXA REIM SGP, has taken the other half in the property via a joint venture agreement.
Both the London and Espoo properties are, AXA Real Estate said, due to benefit from new rail connections, with the UK capital’s Crossrail due to open in 2018 and Espoo due to get a metro station next year.
Pierre Vaquier, chief executive of AXA Real Estate, said the three new acquisitions were ”directly in line with ERAFP’s strategy to acquire core and core-plus assets.”
He said: ”These core, well-let assets will provide secure long-term income streams for investors.”
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