VIB Vermögen, a subsidiary of listed German real estate company DIC Asset, has raised an initial €202m for a newly created open-ended fund which seeks to invest in food retail properties and retail parks.
VIB has launched VIB Retail Balance I with a plan to raise €350m, for the fund.
DIC said VIB is expected to initially provide 49% of the fund’s equity.
The fund’s seed portfolio, which has been sold by VIB together with its subsidiary, BBI Bürgerliches Brauhaus Immobilien Aktiengesellschaft, consists primarily of neighbourhood retail centres, supermarkets as well as retail warehouses in nine different German states.
Earlier this week, BBI announced it had agreed to sell 24 commercial properties worth €189m to the fund.
DIC said the disposal of the properties by VIB’s plan to focus on its logistics and light industrial real estate portfolio.
Last month, German office and logistics real estate investor DIC invested €99m to increase its majority interest in VIB to 68%. The SDAX-listed company said following the stake increase, that VIB will now act as the logistics real estate arm of the DIC.
Sonja Wärntges, DIC’s CEO, said: ”Coming close to the end of a year that has been rather volatile for the industry, this fund sends a strong signal, showing that we keep expanding our unique and prospering business model consistently and with confidence.
”We will use it to continue to generate value-added for all of our stakeholders in 2023 while significantly lowering our loan-to-value ratio at the same time.”
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