AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has completed the sale of a portfolio of 72 food retail assets to the Swedish state-owned pension fund Tredje AP-fonden (AP3).
AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has completed the sale of a portfolio of 72 food retail assets to the Swedish state-owned pension fund Tredje AP-fonden (AP3).
The portfolio comprises 129,000 m2 of primarily food retail space located across Sweden, with more than 80% of the portfolio’s income secured by domestic food retailers with good covenants.
AXA Real Estate, which is selling the assets on behalf of clients, said the deal provides 'geographic diversification as well as direct exposure to the well-performing food retail sector in one of Europe’s strongest economies'.
Financial details were not disclosed.
'The sale of this portfolio to AP3 demonstrates the clear demand from investors for well-located food retail assets, backed by strong tenant covenants, in one of Europe’s strongest economies,' said Henrik Bastman, head of Asset Management in the Nordic Region at AXA Real Estate.
He added: 'This comes at a time where state and private pension funds in Sweden, and across Europe as a whole, are increasingly looking towards the secure and stable cash flows provided by defensive real estate assets in order to meet their liability-matching needs.'
AXA Real Estate Investment Managers is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AXA Investment Managers, the largest real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, with over €45 bn of assets.
