London-based fund manager Coller Capital has pulled off the largest direct property acquisition in Denmark so far this year with the acquisition of a 1,000-unit residential portfolio for a price believed to be as high as DKK 2.6 bn (€350 mln).
London-based fund manager Coller Capital has pulled off the largest direct property acquisition in Denmark so far this year with the acquisition of a 1,000-unit residential portfolio for a price believed to be as high as DKK 2.6 bn (€350 mln).
Catella Corporate Finance advised on the marketing process of the Project Harald portfolio which consists of 22 residential properties on behalf of the vendor, DNB Nor bank.
News that the transaction was pending emerged during PropertyEU's Europe and Nordic Outlook briefing hosted by Catella in Stockholm earlier this week. The name of the buyer was not disclosed at the time.
Danish financial paper Finans reported on Wednesday morning that the buyer was Coller Capital. Coller did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but PropertyEU confirmed Coller was the buyer from other sources.
DNB Nor acquired the portfolio for about DKK 2 bn in 2010 from the estate of bankrupt Danish real estate investor Carsten Leveau. A spokesperson for DNB said the disposal of the portfolio was now part of its strategy of selling non-core assets.
Catella Corporate Finance acted as exclusive financial advisor and Bruun & Hjejle acted as legal advisor to DNB.
Comment
'We highly appreciate the trust shown to Catella by a leading financial institution like DNB. We have managed to secure a confidential structured process and a solution satisfactory to our client,' said Jesper Bo Hansen, head of Corporate Finance at Catella, after the signing of the deal.
'The process has confirmed the increasing importance of combining deep local real estate knowledge with strong capital markets experience. In this process we have targeted not only classic real estate investors, but also financial investors with a still-increasing focus on real estate as an asset class,'he said.
Catella senior partner Andrew Smith added that this was yet another example of increasing international capital flows into the Nordics. Catella, he said, had witnessed significant interest in the portfolio that it was mandated to sell. 'The really interesting thing is that among the top five bidders all were players that have not been in the Nordics before,' Smith said. Catella declined to reveal the identity of any of the bidders.
New player
Coller's coup will come as a surprise to some local market watchers. The company was founded in 1990 and has offices in London, New York and Hong Kong. It describes itself as a leading player in private equity ‘secondaries’. It operates funds that acquire positions in private equity funds from limited partners and portfolios of unquoted companies from their corporate or institutional owners.
Deas, the largest property asset management company in Denmark, has been mandated to manage the portfolio of 1,081 apartments.
Click here to watch Catella's Andrew Smith discuss investment activity in the Nordic markets