A joint venture between pan-European real estate investor and asset manager M7 Real Estate and US-based private equity investment firm HIG Capital has acquired 76 real estate assets in Denmark from Danske Bank.
The investment volume for the 115,000 m2 portfolio was not disclosed.
M7 will act as asset manager through its Copenhagen-based team which is headed by Mette Seifert.
The portfolio comprises a mix of retail, office and residential assets that are located on prominent high streets in the Greater Copenhagen area, as well as in regional towns and cities throughout Denmark. The vendor occupies 58 of the properties through both its Danske Bank brand and subsidiary Home A/S, a nationwide Danish estate agency. Danske Bank is moving to a property leasing rather than real estate ownership model and has, therefore, entered into a range of new occupational leases as part of the transaction.
M7 said it has identified a range of opportunities to improve occupancy levels and income across those properties not occupied by Danske Bank. This will involve undertaking targeted refurbishment to help reduce the 10,000 m2 of currently vacant space and by negotiating lease regears with existing tenants.
Kromann Reumert and PwC provided legal and structuring advice for the transaction. CBRE and Colliers provided commercial and valuation advice, while COWI and Ambiente advised on technical and environmental issues for M7 and HIG. Pareto acted as investment adviser alongside M7.
Richard Croft, CEO at M7, commented: 'Having entered into its first JV with HIG in the Netherlands towards the end of 2013, M7 is very pleased to have expanded the relationship with this new Danish JV.
'The Danske Bank transaction has allowed M7 and H.I.G. to acquire, in a single transaction, a large number of high-quality, well located assets, which are either let to strong tenant covenants or offer significant upside through asset management. To this end, we intend to leverage M7’s pan-European experience, combined with the knowledge and expertise of our team in Copenhagen to create strong returns.'
This is HIG's 33rd real estate investment in Europe since the start of 2013. Riccardo Dallolio, managing director at HIG in London commented: 'This is our sixth investment in the Nordics. The Nordic real estate market represents an important part of our European strategy and we continue to actively look at opportunities in the small/midcap sector in the region.'
