BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management (REIM) has acquired EUR 215 mln of real estate in the first nine months of the year?. The purchases represent an increase of over 37% in comparison to the same period a year before, the company said.

BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management (REIM) has acquired EUR 215 mln of real estate in the first nine months of the year?. The purchases represent an increase of over 37% in comparison to the same period a year before, the company said.

The French property investment manager has invested a total of EUR 159 mln for its regulated funds, almost three times the amount spent last year. In particular, BNP Paribas REIM's OPCI and SCPI investment vehicles have bought a total of nine corporate facilities for EUR 132 mln. The most notable investment in Q3 was the EUR 85.2 mln acquisition of three new industrial platforms that have been leased for a term of 12 years to La Poste.

BNP Paribas REIM has also sold real estate worth some EUR 56 mln in the year to September 2009. This compares to sales of EUR 97 mln carried out in the first three quarters of 2008. Most of the disposals so far this year (EUR 51 mln) consisted of commercial real estate assets.

Following the announcement in early October of the launch of its new pan-European fund Next Estate, BNP Paribas said it has also asked the French stock market authority AMF for permission to set up a new OPCI investment fund for retail investors - its fourth vehicle in the country.

After the acquisition of Fortis Bank's business in Belgium and Luxembourg earlier this year, BNP Paribas has added EUR 1.8 bn of assets owned by Fortis Real Estate to its portfolio under management, which has now reached a value of EUR 10 bn in Europe.