Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) has raised an initial €109m for a newly launched a core/core-plus European food retail-focused fund.
The Savills IM European Food Retail Fund received the capital commitments from six German institutional investors at first closing, the manager said, adding that the fund expects to raise at least €750m with a maximum debt ratio of 50%.
Savills IM said the fund has made its first investment with the acquisition of a €140m Danish supermarket portfolio of 38 urban properties in a sale and leaseback deal. The assets are let to the food discounter REMA 1000 Denmark on a 15-year fixed-term.
The manager said while the main fund strategy is to acquire further supermarket portfolios with lot sizes usually starting at €50m, the fund may also acquire neighbourhood centres, mixed-use urban properties and specialist retail centres provided that they have a food retailer as an anchor tenant and at least 70% of the rental income comes from food/grocery and basic services tenants.
Ian Jones, director of investment at Savills IM, said:”This is the first transaction for our new flagship grocery fund, which will be investing in food retail across Europe.
“There is significant appetite for this sector among our investor base and we look forward to further significant transactions in 2021.”
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