Kåpan has sold its stake in the UK’s Pinewood Studios for SEK800m (€73.6m), making more than six times the amount the Swedish pension fund invested in 2016.

Kåpan said it had owned a share of Pinewood Studios, located outside London and used to film blockbusters such as the Bond films and Star Wars, via Aermont Capital.

“The investment was made in 2016 and was then SEK120m,” the mutually-owned occupational pension provider said.

“Demand for film studios has been strong in recent years and Aermont has successfully developed the business, which is the basis for the good value development,” said Kåpan, which manages SEK130bn of pension assets.

Kåpan said it intended to reinvest the cash gained from the Pinewood sale into other real estate assets in the near term.

The sale coincides with a shift in the structure of Aermont’s ownership, with the property-focused investment manager transferring its ownership in Pinewood Group to a new corporate vehicle named PGV set up for the purpose of owning and expanding the film studio company.

The vehicle will be managed by Aermont, and is backed by investors including sovereign investors and state pension funds, according to information given to Pinewood Group bondholders last week.

“Investors in PGV are some of the world’s leading institutional investors, who committed capital necessary to acquire the business, as well as additional capital to support Pinewood’s future growth,” the UK film and TV studios firm said in the bondholder communication.

PGV is a long-term vehicle with no designated termination date, it said. IPE Real Assets understands capital from the previous private equity fund holding Pinewood’s capital was returned to investors on maturity. 

Paul Golding, chief executive officer of Pinewood, said the firm had been working to bring new capital into the group for the last few months.

“Investors in PGV, the owner of Pinewood, comprise highly reputable sovereign and state pension funds and with their commitment, the group is well placed to continue to grow for many years to come,” he said.

Golding is a partner at Aermont, and was previously head of real estate asset strategies at Norges Bank Investment Management, which runs Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global.

In 2016, Aermont’s Fund III acquired 100% of the shares of Pinewood, which had been listed on the UK’s Alternative Investment Market exchange, and subsequently delisted the company, according to the manager’s website.

The private equity manager said it had expanded the large-stage studio space at the main Pinewood site, as one of its large growth initiatives for the group.

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