Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has made a near 60% profit in 18 months on three US logistics assets.
The NOK7.4trn (€830bn) Government Pension Fund Global sold its interest in the properties in the San Francisco Bay area for $38.3m (€35.8m), suggesting the fund made a profit of nearly 60% on the investment since entering the investment one and a half years ago.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages investments for the fund, announced that its real estate arm had sold the buildings via its partnership with global warehousing specialist Prologis.
The buyer of the portfolio was JLL Income Property Trust.
Norges Bank Real Estate Management (NBREM) has an ongoing partnership with Prologis in both the US and Europe. Assets owned through the joint venture accounted for nearly one-quarter of the sovereign wealth fund’s real estate portfolio at the end of 2015.
The former oil fund received $38.3m for its 45% ownership interest in the US logistics properties, which the partnership bought during development in May 2015.
At the time, NBREM paid $24.3m for its share of the assets, indicating that the sale to JLL had crystallised a profit of 57.6% on the investment.
The agreement to sell the Californian assets was signed in September 2016, and completed in two stages — in September and last month.
The buildings in the portfolio have total leasable space of 518,000sqft and are fully-let, with a weighted average lease term of about seven years.
NBREM and Prologis have been selling several logistics properties over the past year.
Last July, it sold two US logistics properties located in New Jersey that it had bought as part of the joint venture for $90m, having sold its interest in two Spanish logistics properties for €45.7m in April 2016 – also investments made through the Prologis partnership.
