Nuveen Real Estate entered the European self-storage sector via the acquisition of Green Storage platform in Sweden.

The investment management arm of US financial services group TIAA has paid an undisclosed sum to buy a majority interest in Green Storage from Green Group. The seller retains a minority interest. 

Formed in 2017, Green Storage owns an initial portfolio of 14 assets, six of which are under development, in the Greater Stockholm market.

Jasper Gilbey, the head of the TIAA General Accounts real estate portfolio in Europe, said: “Nuveen is focused on expanding into the real estate alternative sectors – with self-storage considered one of the winning sub-sectors in Europe given low levels of supply, proven resilience during times of volatility and scope to drive efficiencies by creating a digitalised platform of scale.

“We believe that Green Storage represents an excellent entry into the competitive European storage market given the quality of the portfolio that has been created to-date, strong track-record of the management team and the unique tech-focused strategy.”

Niklas Borg, CEO of Green Group, said: “The platform that we have created widely exceeds the standard KPI´s for the self-storage industry and from our perspective it feels natural to join forces with Nuveen to bring this successful business out to the rest of Europe.

“It is our firm belief that a new majority owner, bringing with them extensive experience in the field and additional capital backing, is the right step to take the Green Storage platform to more cities in Sweden as well as the European market.”

To read the digital edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.