Bouwfonds Investment Management's third institutional real estate parking fund is now fully invested following the acquisition of a car park in the Finnish capital Helsinki.
Bouwfonds European Real Estate Parking Fund III (BEREPF III) acquired its last asset from Finnish financial investor OP for €28 mln.
The property is an underground car park with a total of 400 parking spaces, all below ground level. Located underneath the Kasarmitori town square in the central districts of Helsinki, the facility is operated by Q-Park.
Bouwfonds IM was supported in the transaction by the law firms Latham & Watkins Hamburg and Bird & Bird Helsinki, and by the Swedish real estate investment management company RIM. IntReal International Real Estate is acting as the service asset management company for the fund, performing administration of the open ended special AIF.
Following this purchase, BEREPF III is now fully invested with car parks in seven countries. The fund already owned a car park in the Norwegian capital Oslo and Bart Pierik, managing director of parking at Bouwfonds IM, said the intention was to grow further in the Nordics via other parking funds in the years ahead.
Bouwfonds IM is at the forefront of real estate fund investment in European car parks. It manages some €900 mln of parking facilities across its BEREPF fund series.
In April, BEREPF III acquired 17 European car parks for €250 mln from predecessor fund, BEREPF l. Cushman & Wakefield managed a competitive disposal process, which attracted interest from 48 global capital sources and resulted in 10 formal offers.
Seven of the car parks are located in France, of which three in the capital city Paris. Four properties are located in the UK, of which two in Greater London. Another two are located in the Netherlands and one in Spain.
'We have succeeded in investing the funds committed by our investors for BEREPF III in an attractive portfolio in line with the strategy. Our strategy is to develop a European portfolio of top-quality, sustainable car parks, preferably in city-centre locations,' said Martin Eberhardt FRICS, country manager of Bouwfonds IM Deutschland.
'Demand among institutional investors for car park investments remains high,' Eberhardt continued. 'We were therefore able to launch the successor fund, BEREPF IV, in April 2017 already.'
Q-Park
The Finnish acquisition comes as KKR Infrastructure received full backing from Q-Park's pool of institutional shareholders for its €2.9 bn bid to acquire the European parking group.
Headquartered in the Dutch city of Maastricht, Q-Park operates 871,500 parking spaces at 6,643 locations in 10 European countries. It is the largest car park group in the Benelux and Finland. The business employs 2,500 people and posted earnings of €85 mln on turnover of €825 mln in 2016.
Vincent Policard, director of KKR Infrastructure, said: 'We look forward to working with the company to support its growth strategy, team up with public and private partners to provide mobility solutions for the cities and offer Q-Park enhanced access to funding in the context of the anticipated consolidation of the fragmented parking industry.'
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second half of 2017.
'This is an important milestone for Q-Park. KKR's sector expertise, track record and broad range of financial and operational capabilities make it the perfect partner for the next stage in the company’s development. I look forward to working closely with the KKR team as we capitalise on the opportunities ahead of us,' Q-park CEO Frank De Moor added.
Under KKR's ownership, De Moor, chairman and CEO since 2014, and Marcello Iacono, CFO since 2015, will continue to head the management team.
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The June edition of PropertyEU Magazine includes an analysis of the Q-Park buyout and the wider European car parking sector.
