US asset management giant Blackstone and Swedish asset manager Areim have sold two office properties in Sweden to local property firm Intea for around SEK 3 bn (€323 mln).
The assets, which were sold by Regementsfastigheter R Holding, a company indirectly owned by real estate funds managed by Blackstone and Areim, were part of the larger Obligo portfolio acquired by Blackstone last year for around €2.4 bn.
The package includes the Smedstad 1:21 scheme in Linköping and Gunnar 1 in Ostersund, amounting to a total of 132,600 m2. The assets are multi let to several public authorities including the Police Authority, the National Courts Administration, the Linköping municipality, and the Public Health Agency.
The portfolio also includes unused building rights for around 40,000 m2.
Pangea Property Partners advised Intea while Leimdörfer acted for the seller.
Following the acquisition, Intea owns a portfolio of 165,000 m2 valued at SEK 3.5 bn.
Intea was founded in autumn 2015 and counts several pension funds among its investors including the Swedish Handelsbanken Pension Fund, and the Volvo and the Saab pension funds.
Blackstone bought the Obligo portfolio last year from Norwegian fund manager Obligo Investment Management in its first major push into Scandinavia. The portfolio has a broad geographical spread with a concentration of assets in Norway, Sweden and Germany as well as elements in Denmark, France, Latvia and the UK.
Around a third of the portfolio was made up of logistics assets, which Blackstone contributed to its Logicor platform.
Nordic Investment Briefing
The transaction will undoubtly be a major topic at PropertyEU's Nordic Investment Briefing which takes place in London on Friday 3 June. Areim's Julia Mejegård agreed earlier this week to join the panel for the briefing.
Areim is looking to extend its reach across the Nordic region following the appointment of two senior investment professionals. Mejegård and Markus Laine were appointed in April following the first closing of Areim Fund III, which has a target investment volume of €4 bn. The company raised around half the capital at its first close in December and is anticipating a final close later this year. The investors include Allianz Real Estate and the Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund (AP4).
Mejegård was previously a partner at Stockholm-based Leimdörfer, where she worked in transaction advisory and real estate related corporate finance, and brings extensive knowledge of the Scandinavian real estate industry.
