A newly launched Aberdeen Standard Investments European long-income real estate fund has made its first investment with the acquisition of a logistics facility in the Netherlands.
Aberdeen Standard said its open-ended European Long Income Real Estate Fund has invested an undisclosed amount to buy the asset in Eindhoven. The logistics facility is leased to fruit and vegetable supplier Scherpenhuizen.
The European long income property fund, which raised over €100m at its first close in October last year, plans to build a diversified portfolio of direct real estate assets located in key Western European markets with a focus on Germany, France, Benelux and the Nordics — excluding the UK.
The new fund aims to provide long-term, reliable, inflation-protected income streams with reduced volatility in capital values compared with a more conventional real estate fund.
Aberdeen Standard said the team plans to complete further three investments by early September 2020, including two assets with public-sector tenants in Norway and Ireland and a logistics asset in Sweden.
Collectively, the Eindhoven logistics property and the three pipeline assets will have a value in excess of €130m, the manager said.
Neil Slater, global head of real estate and deputy head of private markets at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said: “We are delighted to have completed our first transaction for this fund and it’s encouraging to have an excellent pipeline of opportunities enabling us to build a diversified portfolio.
”We are confident that this fund, drawing on our long-established expertise in long income real estate investing and the strength and depth of our European real estate platform, is well placed to deliver reliable, long-term income streams to institutional investors looking for assets that can help with liability matching.”
Nick Ireland, head of core funds at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said: “With government bonds yields and interest rates still at historic lows, institutional investors in continental Europe face the same challenges as their counterparts in the UK, where long lease real estate investment has often performed a role in investors’ portfolios more akin to that played by forms of fixed income.
“We believe the attraction of such a strategy in the current environment is greater than ever and this product will enable European institutional investors to access a high-quality real estate portfolio with secure, long income streams.”
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