Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and The Crown Estate have expanded their central London real estate joint venture, buying three assets from Aviva Life & Pensions UK and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments).
The Regent Street Partnership, a joint venture between The Crown Estate and Norges Bank Real Estate Management (NBREM) — which manages the NOK8trln (€852bn) Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) – has acquired interests in the prime retail and office assets for £120m (€140m).
Part of the deal involved the partnership buying the 94-year unexpired lease on 263-269 Oxford Street and 3-5 Swallow Place – the Regent Street Partnership already owned the property itself.
This property consists of 16,000sqft of Oxford Street retail space and 19,000sqft of office space.
It also acquired 100% of 1 Princes Street and 6 Swallow Place, which comprises 2,000sqft of retail space and 4,000sqft of office space.
Thirdly, it took the 33% interest in 2-4 Princes Street, giving it full ownership of the property which comprises 6,000sqft of retail space and 7,000sqft of office space.
Regent Street Partnership, in which NBREM has a 25% stake, will now manage the properties directly.
No financing was used in the acquisition.
In January this year, the Regent Street partnership signed a deal to buy the leasehold in another central London building it owned, acquiring it from Standard Life.
The Regent Street Partnership between the two institutional investors dates from 2010 and the oil fund’s first investment in unlisted real estate, when it bought a 150-year lease on a 25% stake in The Crown Estate’s Regent Street properties.
