Hines secures €1.3b high-street investment mandate from BVK

US privately held developer investor Hines has been engaged by German pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) to execute a €1.3 bn separate account programme targeting prime high-street retail assets across Europe.

BVK, Germany’s largest pension scheme group with €62 bn assets under management, has awarded Hines the mandate to focus on identifying, acquiring and managing core-plus, value add and re-/development retail assets in prime locations on high streets in major markets across 20 countries in Europe. The majority of investments are intended for a long-term hold.

Hines will be pursuing a range of value-added measures including rental reviews, repositioning and re-leasing of units, store reconfiguration and light refurbishments. In addition, major redevelopments, including conversions, and ground-up developments will be part of the investment strategy.

Hines has already acquired the first asset at the end of last year, with the purchase of an iconic building on Oslo’s Karl Johans gate in Norway. The 5,100 m2 building has been secured as a sale and leaseback from Landkreditt Bank for €52 mln.

Over the last two years, Hines has launched a series of separate accounts and one-off transactions with German pension funds, securing over €1.5 bn of equity commitments.

Norman Fackelmann, department head of real estate Investment Management at BVK, said: 'As a business we are committed to growing our exposure to the high street retail market. It is a sector which offers attractive fundamentals, and there are good opportunities to source value add assets in strategic locations for long-term investing. Hines represents the perfect fit for executing this strategy given the strong track record in asset level value creation across a broad range of markets.'

Lars Huber, co-CEO for Hines Europe, said: 'This is a significant mandate for our European business. It enables us to capitalize on our integrated business model and leverage our pan European platform to focus on value creation through active asset management, refurbishments and redevelopment.'