Cityhold to acquire first German property

Swedish investment vehicle Cityhold is buying a 15,000 m2 office property in its first acquisition in Germany.

The property at Nymphenburger Strasse 3 in Munich was completed in 2003 and comprises 15,000 m2 of multi-let office space let on an average unexpired term of seven years.

Cityhold acquired the building from a special real estate fund managed by IVG Institutional Funds for an undisclosed amount.

Cityhold is a wholly owned subsidiary of AP 1 and AP 2, two of the five buffer funds for the National Pension Fund of Sweden. It focuses on core European office investments of approximately €50 mln and above. AP1 and AP2 have a combined €48 bn of net assets under management.

After acquiring approximately €600 mln of core London offices in 2012, Cityhold switched its focus to mainland Europe, specifically Germany and Paris, this year.

'After the successes in London last year, our aim was to expand into Europe and much of our time this year has been spent in Paris and Germany. Our focus in Germany is on the cities of Hamburg and Munich,' Cityhold CEO Per Sjöberg said. 'Having built a strong network and understanding of the market, we are very pleased to have secured our first German deal and one that so closely matches our investment criteria whilst still achieving our target returns. We are keen to maintain this momentum into 2014, with a strong appetite for further German, as well as Paris-based investments.'

Cityhold's owners are providing full equity funding for the acquisition.

Jones Lang LaSalle acted as Cityhold's real estate adviser for this acquisition, with legal advice provided by Mannheimer Swartling. The vendor was represented by Colliers for the sales process and GSK Stockmann acted as legal adviser.