PGGM is investing in a German retail portfolio in a joint venture with Belgium’s AG Insurance and asset manager Rockspring Property Investment Managers.
The joint venture paid €350m for the retail warehouse portfolio sold by Capital & Regional and Ares Management.
Thijs van Gelder, PGGM senior investment manager, said: “This is an attractive, value-add portfolio with longevity, a stable cash flow, and, importantly, defined actions to improve the portfolio’s sustainability performance.
“This partnership is in line with our ambition to have a high degree of control over the investments we make on behalf of our clients.”
AG Insurance is investing via its AG Real Estate subsidiary.
Rockspring said its German Retail Box Fund (GRBF) had joined the consortium.
The investment manager said the 275,000sqm portfolio of 23 out-of-town assets was the largest of its kind to be sold in Germany in the last five years.
Stuart Reid, partner for Germany at Rockspring, said the transaction took the investment manager’s German and Swiss retail warehousing portfolio to more than €1.5bn.
The portfolio, 92% in Western Germany, produces an annual rent of around €28m and is 98% let.
Metro Group’s Real hypermarket brand is one of the portfolio’s tenants, along with REWE, Kaufland, Edeka and Globus.
