CBRE and Savills emerged at the top of our list for their advisory roles in the acquisition of a 50% stake in the Meadowhall mall in the English city of Sheffield.

CBRE and Savills emerged at the top of our list for their advisory roles in the acquisition of a 50% stake in the Meadowhall mall in the English city of Sheffield.

CBRE advised the buyer, Norway’s giant oilfuelled pension fund, while Savills advised the vendor, London & Stamford.

The 50% stake Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) acquiried in the 141,000 m2 Meadowhall mall for €940 mln was the largest deal by investment volume and marked the first time that the Norwegian pension fund invested in a real estate asset outside a European capital. NBIM’s first UK investment was in London’s Regent Street in a joint venture with The Crown Estate and its second big strike was in Paris together with AXA Real Estate.

Following the Meadowhall deal, NBIM subsequently struck office deals in smaller cities in mainland Europe including Frankfurt and Zurich to end its spending spree in 2012 with a massive pan-European logistics joint venture with Prologis. The second largest transaction involved Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels advising Groupe du Louvre on the sale of a hotel portfolio in France for €700 mln to Qatari-backed Constellation Hotels.

Like Meadowhall, the deal involved a regional element with locations including Cannes and Nice on the French Rivera. The hotels were the 5-star Hôtel du Louvre and the 4-star Hôtel Concorde La Fayette in Paris; the 5-star Hôtel Martinez in Cannes; and the 5-star Hôtel Palais de la Méditerranée in Nice. The vendor, Groupe du Louvre, is an affiliate of US-based Starwood CapitalGroup.

The special report in the June edition of PropertyEU Magazine will highlight more deals plus overall transaction volumes in 2012.

A preview of our Top Brokers special report, available for premium members in the link below, shows the top transaction by investment volume for each of the property advisers covered in the research.