SEB AM re-enters UK market with EUR 63m acquisition

German asset manager SEB Asset Management said that it has taken advantage of favourable market conditions to re-enter the British market, acquiring a Grade A logistics property in West Moor Park in Doncaster for about EUR 63mln and indicating that it also sees good purchase opportunities in the London office market in the short term. The logistics property was acquired from a private group of investor’s for the asset manager’s SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund.

Constructed in 2003 and extended in 2005, SEB Asset Managed noted that the West Moor Park building has a leasable area of around 70,000 m² that is let to British clothing chain Next Group until 2023.

SEB has already sold off its UK portfolio twice in past years, most recently at end-2004. ‘We systematically leveraged market developments to actively manage our portfolio,’ Choy-Soon Chua, managing director for real estate investments at SEB Asset Management, said in a statement. ‘The current market situation in the United Kingdom is positive from a buyer’s perspective. We will continue to monitor the investment climate.’