AXA Real Estate has completed the acquisition of a core office building in Milan for €20 mln on behalf of its AXA Selectiv’ Immo OPCI investment fund.

AXA Real Estate has completed the acquisition of a core office building in Milan for €20 mln on behalf of its AXA Selectiv’ Immo OPCI investment fund.

The vendor is the Atlantic 2 - Berenice property fund, managed by asset manager Fimit sgr.

This 7,154 m2 property at Via Tazzoli in central Milan comprises six office floors, a ground floor restaurant plus two underground car parks. The building, which was refurbished in the first half of 2014, is mainly let to international blue-chip companies within the service and industry sectors and will benefit from the opening of the new Monumentale metro station in early 2015.

The acquisition is the fourth for AXA Selectiv’ Immo in the last 12 months and the second outside of France, following the acquisition of two retail outlets in Madrid in 2013.

'As a prime asset on the edge of Milan’s central business district, this acquisition is demonstrative of our core approach,' commented Alessio Lucentini, head of Italian Asset Management & Transactions at AXA Real Estate. 'By investing in opportunities which are high quality and well let but just off city centre, we believe we can deliver higher returns for our clients, and often with lower risk than those within the central business district.'