AXA Real Estate Investment Managers was one of the biggest investors in European property and debt last year after lifting its acquisitions by 12% and its debt programme by more than 50% year-on-year.
AXA Real Estate Investment Managers was one of the biggest investors in European property and debt last year after lifting its acquisitions by 12% and its debt programme by more than 50% year-on-year.
The Paris-based investment manager told PropertyEU that it boosted real estate acquisitions to €2.9 bn from €2.6 bn in 2011 after a flurry of deals at the end of last year.
The figure of €2.9 bn propels AXA Real Estate to joint first position in the PropertyEU Ranking of Top Investors over 2012.
The previous overview published earlier this year was based on the information available at the time and was headed by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), manager of Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, with a volume of €2.6 bn. Revised figures put NBIM's investment volume at €2.9 bn, putting it in shared first position with AXA.
AXA Real Estate also bolstered its debt programme in 2012 by no less than 53% to €2.3 bn from €1.5 bn in 2011.
Disposals were steady at €2.1 bn, making AXA Real Estate once more a net purchaser in 2011. Overall the real estate arm of French insurance giant AXA increased its total assets under management to €45.3 bn at end-2012, marking an increase year-on-year of almost 8%.
AXA Real Estate undertook some of Europe's largest and most high profile acquisitions of 2012 including the €784 mln purchase from RBS of Die Welle in Frankfurt and Neues Kranzler Eck, in Berlin, in a joint venture with Norway's mammoth oil fund.
In the UK, AXA Real Estate engaged in a forward funding purchase worth €392 mln of a 40,000 m2 office development in King's Cross London. Half of the complex is pre-let to Paris-based BNP Paribas which is also the developer of the project in a 50:50 joint venture with an international partner.
Other high-profile acquisitions included the €311 mln purchase of 53 Bahnoff Strasse in Zurich, an office and retail property on one of the world's most expensive and exclusive shopping avenues. In France, AXA acquired Carré St Germain, a prime retail and office property in the 6th arrondissement in Paris from Gecina for €148 mln and sold 8 Place Vendôme to the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) for €135 mln, its first real estate investment in France.
Commenting on last year's performance, Anne Kavanagh, AXA Real Estate's global head of asset management and Transactions, said 2012 was 'an extremely busy year for AXA Real Estate'. 'We have been able to significantly surpass an impressive 2011 by growing transaction volumes to €7.3 bn. We have made a series of landmark transactions during the year, right across Europe and covering the full risk spectrum. By utilising our network of local teams across Europe we have also continued to manage our investment portfolio assets well, to ensure we are best able to both safeguard and create value on behalf of our clients.'
