Norway’s giant oil-fuelled wealth fund has boosted its presence in London further by acquiring Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s London HQ for £582.5 mln (€739.5 mln).
Norway’s giant oil-fuelled wealth fund has boosted its presence in London further by acquiring Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s London HQ for £582.5 mln (€739.5 mln).
The vendor is GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore.
Oslo-based Norges Bank Investment Management, manager of the Norway Government Pension Fund Global, said the deal did not involve any debt financing.
The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Financial Centre is a 54,000 m2 office complex located at 2 King Edward Street. It includes four independent office buildings and is fully leased to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which will continue to manage the property.
Norges has been actively increasing its property holdings in London and across Europe in recent months, both on its own and with partners.
In August, Norges and The Crown Estate expanded their joint London property holdings by acquiring a chunk of prime Mayfair real estate in a £381 mln (€478 mln) transaction.
NBIM and The Crown Estate launched their London partnership in 2010 with the Norwegian fund acquiring a 25% stake in The Crown Estate's Regent Street holdings for £448 mln (then about €511 mln). Other smaller joint purchases followed.
The Norwegian SWF has also been on the acquisition trail in mainland Europe. Last year, for example, it acquired the 28-storey SZ tower in Munich for €164 mln.
Norway Government Pension Fund Global rose from 15th place to the number 4 position in PropertyEU's 2013 pension fund survey, carried out as part of its annual Top Investors ranking.
Thanks to a string of joint venture transactions, the €596 bn Norse fund increased its global property portfolio to around €6 bn, or 1% of its overall investment portfolio of €596 bn at end-2013. NBIM started investing in direct property in 2010 and had a portfolio valued at €4 bn, or 0.07% of its overall €534 bn of investments in December 2012.