Hemfosa poised to acquire €220m portfolio in Sweden

Hemfosa Fastigheter, a Stockholm-listed real estate investor backed by pension funds, is poised to acquire a portfolio of 54 properties in southern and western Sweden for SEK 2 bn (€220 mln).

The assets are being sold by Fastighets AB Corallen and Eklandia Fastighets, subsidiaries of listed Swedish property company Castellum.

Both Hemfosa and Castellum announced on Tuesday that they were in ongoing negotiations on the portfolio. If the deal goes ahead it will include all of Corallen's 53 properties in Värnamo and Växjö and a property in Gothenburg owned by Eklandia.

Hemfosa Fastigheter is now carrying out technical, legal and financial due diligence on the portfolio which provides 280,000 m2 spread over public properties, offices and logistics. The transaction is due to be signed later this month.

'We are continuously looking for growth potential in our property portfolio. The transaction, if completed, means a refinement of the portfolio and gives Castellum continued conditions to deliver growth in the long term in line with our high objective,' said Castellum’s CEO Henrik Saxborn.

Castellum is one of Sweden's major listed real estate companies. Its €4.3 bn portfolio comprises office, retail, warehouse and industrial property with a total lettable area of 3.7 million m2. The portfolio is owned and managed by six wholly owned subsidiaries with strong local roots in five growth regions: Greater Gothenburg, the Öresund Region, Greater Stockholm, Mälardalen and Eastern Götaland.

Hemfosa was founded in June 2009 to invest in commercial real estate in Sweden. Its major backers are the fourth national pension fund (AP 4) as well as private pension funds and insurance companies. The company's portfolio comprises 1.7 million m2 of space, valued at €1.8 bn.