Germany's largest pension fund investor Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) and fund manager Universal-Investment have joined forces with Blue Asset Management to launch a €250 mln retail park fund.
The fund will primarily invest in Austrian retail parks in established locations, with a focus on established and modern retail concepts that primarily provide local and basic services for the catchment area. This includes retail parks and centers of city districts, specialist stores, city markets, convenience stores in city districts and local supply centers.
The vehicle's maiden investment comprised of eight retail properties with a total rental area of around 70,000 m2.
Blue Asset Management has been mandated to provide investment advice and real estate management services.
BVK has €69 bn of overall assets under management. The pension giant was the largest direct buyer of European real estate among global institutional investors last year. BVK deployed just over €2 bn in the sector, with Norway's massive oil pension fund in second place at €1.7 bn, according to Real Capital Analytics' data.
BVK is a very active investor in retail real estate. In April, it acquired a portfolio of German retail properties from Corestate Capital for €687 mln. Corestate Capital and Universal-Investment also administer another BVK umbrella fund that purchased a micro-living asset in Hamburg for €64 mln in January 2017.
