GLOBAL - The property joint venture between the NOK3.1trn (€401bn) Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global and the Crown Estate has acquired two mixed office/retail assets off London's Regent Street for £28m (€31.8m).
The Regent Street Partnership acquired one of the assets, in Maddox Street, from a pension fund client of Aberdeen Asset Management in a deal worth £23m. Aberdeen today declined to give details of the seller.
Under the terms of the £448m (€509m) deal negotiated last November and signed in April, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) acquired 25% of the Crown Estate's existing 114-asset Regent Street portfolio on a 150-year lease.
The two assets acquired last week are the first to be bought in addition to the Crown Estate's existing portfolio as part of its 20-year £730m regeneration programme for the area.
A spokeswoman for NBIM, which manages the sovereign wealth fund's portfolio, confirmed that the assets had been sourced by Crown Estate, but added: "When the amount of capital is that significant, we would also have a say."
NBIM chief investment officer Karsten Kallevig said in a statement the fund expected to broaden its central London partnership with the Crown Estate.
The fund has also targeted the French market in a bid to meet its target real estate allocation of 5% in line with a strategy to target core assets in prime locations in mature markets.
It last month acquired a €1.4bn portfolio of seven Paris office properties via a joint venture with AXA Real Estate.
