Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) has launched a new German supermarket and retail centre fund, the BVK-Deutschland I-Immobilienfonds – FMZ fund, with an initial acquisition of 46 properties.
Asset and property manager GPEP together with Universal-Investment advised BVK, Germany's largest pension fund investor, on the fund launch. Its initial investment volume stands at €250 mln.
'Over the past two years, institutional investors have increasingly discovered supermarkets and retail centres as an asset class offering an attractive risk/reward profile. The joint inception of the BVK-Deutschland I-Immobilienfonds – FMZ fund is further proof that our experienced team is more than capable of meeting BVK’s investment criteria,' commented Jochen Friedrich, managing director of GPEP.
The fund's first acquisition is an off-market portfolio consisting of 46 properties in the retail centre, supermarket and food retailer segments, supplemented by a few non-food outlets and a DIY superstore.
The properties are located at established sites in ten German states, with the focus being on Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
The anchor tenants are EDEKA/Netto and the REWE Group. With a rental space of approximately 115,000 m2, the annual net rent currently amounts to some €8.8 mln. Around 93% of the rental space is leased out, with the average residual term of the 123 leases being about 4.5 years.
The buyers were advised by Mayer Brown on legal matters.
BVK, the Bavarian pension plan for professional groups, has assets under management in excess of €69 bn.
