Pension fund PensionDanmark has bought the newly-built headquarters of Denmark’s railway operator Banedanmark from property developer KBC, which will manage the property.

The investment is part of a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement between PensionDanmark, KBC and the Danish Building and Property Agency, which is renting the property.

The 9,500sqm property was built by KPC from recycled brick and is located in Ringsted, 60km to the west of Copenhagen.

PensionDanmark would not disclose the value of the investment

Marius Møller, real estate director at PensionDanmark, said: “We are really pleased about this investment, in which we are actively contributing to the community and at the same time getting a stable return on our members’ pension savings.”

He said it allowed Banedanmark to occupy modern headquarters without the state having to tie up capital in the property, while PensionDanmark would benefit from having a long-term, stable tenant.

Jesper Jørgensen, director at KPC, said the project had been the first PPP his firm had undertaken with PensionDanmark, and that he saw good opportunities for cooperation with the pension fund on similar projects in the future.

PenSam buys three capital city properties, advised by Fokus

Denmark’s PenSam has invested €81m in a trio of central Copenhagen properties, consisting of new and newly-converted space for use as apartments, retail units and offices.

The properties were purchased for just under DKK600m (€81m) and consist of 74 newly-built apartments and 7,150sqm of commercial space, the DKK155bn pension fund said.

All three property deals were advised by Fokus Asset Management, which will now manage the buildings.

They include a building on the corner of Linnésgade and Frederiksborggade with a classic 1877 facade, a 5,560sqm modern property in the city’s Østerbro district which was converted last year from offices to flats, and another two buildings in Østerbro with combined space of around 7,000sqm.

The latter two buildings are a residential property with 31 apartments, and an office/laboratory building currently being used to analyse COVID-19 tests.

Carsten Gröhn, head of private capital and real assets at PenSam, said: “We grasped the opportunities to buy three good properties in good locations in Copenhagen close to the metro, parking and shopping.

“I’m sure the properties will be a good investment for our pension customers, and we will now get going with optimising the buildings’ sustainability.”

AMF pumps SEK400m into amusement parks firm as pandemic closures bite

Swedish pension fund AMF is investing SEK400m (€39m) in amusement-park company Parks and Resorts Scandinavia, continuing its strategy of investing in viable companies in need of recapitalisation because of the effects of the coronavirus.

AMF said the privately-owned Swedish company had sales totalling SEK1.3bn in 2019, but was unable to open all the parks it owns and operates as planned this year.

The company owns the Kolmården, Gröna Lund, Furuviksparken and Skara Sommarland parks.

The pension fund — one of Sweden’s largest — told IPE Real Assets it was investing in the form of preference shares in the firm, which could be repurchased or converted into normal shares at the end of the five-year term, and that the investment was within its traditional insurance portfolio and would be handled by its equity team.

Anders Oscarsson, head of equity at AMF, said: “Parks and Resorts is a fine and basically well-run company with a leading position in the Swedish hospitality industry that has been hit very hard by the pandemic’s consequences.”

He added that AMF believed the investment would provide good, long-term returns for its members, while also giving the company the ability to survive the crisis “and come out strong on the other side”.

Christer Fogelmarck, CEO of Parks and Resorts Scandinavia, said: “The fact that a long-term investor like AMF believes in us provides both self-confidence and an opportunity to maintain the necessary basic structure.”

In April, AMF announced it had earmarked up to SEK5bn to support businesses through the COVID-19 crisis, investing equity in companies in which it was already a long-term owner.

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