The joint venture between Swedish national pension fund Första AP-fonden (AP1), Finnish pension fund Elo Mutual and asset manager Trevian to invest in Finnish real estate has started trading as Agore Kiinteistöt with a €160 mln deal.
In March, PropertyEU reported that a €400 mln joint venture was being created to focus on city-centre retail and office properties in strongly performing cities, primarily outside the Helsinki area.
Now Agore Kiinteistöt has commenced operations, acquiring a seed portfolio from Elo including 10 retail assets worth around €160 mln. Located in eight major Finnish cities including Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu, the properties exceed 100,000 m2 of leasable area.
'The name Agore is derived from Agora, a Greek word for market square, and real estate,' said Antti Muilu, head of domestic real estate at Elo Mutual Pension Insurance. 'It also describes the company’s investment strategy to focus on centrally located commercial real estates in growing cities.'
According to Elo, the joint venture's current commitments exceed €400 mln and the company will have resources to expand this further.
Custor Capital AB acted as the advisor to Trevian.
