Starwood Capital Group is expected to get the green light on Monday for the €1.2 bn acquisition of 106 properties in the Nordics - the largest in the region in the last 12 months.

Starwood Capital Group is expected to get the green light on Monday for the €1.2 bn acquisition of 106 properties in the Nordics - the largest in the region in the last 12 months.

First signalled on 19 December, the proposed transaction would mark Starwood Capital's entry into the Norwegian real estate market. It involves the DNB Nor Eiendomsinvest asset management platform and 27 properties, covering 215,000 m2, in Norway, plus the related acquisition of SveaReal Fastigheter in Sweden.

Pangea Property Partners advised Starwood on the transaction.

Shareholders of DNB Nor Eiendomsinvest - a property fund which is part of Norway's largest bank, DNB Nor, and owns the property company Fortin - vote on the proposal on Monday, and market watchers expect they will back the sale to Starwood Global Opportunity Fund X. The board of DNB Nor Eiendomsinvest strongly recommends the deal.

The overall transaction is valued at NOK 11 bn (€1.2 bn), making it the single largest property transaction in the Nordic region announced in 2014. Starwood is believed to have received almost the same amount - €1.2-1.5 bn - for the sale of the French Groupe du Louvre hotel chain to Chinese hospitality conglomerate Jin Jiang International Holdings in November 2014.

PORTFOLIOS
The Norwegian portfolio consists of offices (58% of the portfolio), retail (28%), logistics/industrial (9%), hotel (1%) and other premises (2%). The portfolio is 94% occupied, with 70% of the space in the Greater Oslo area.

SveaReal owns 79 assets, providing 838,000 m2 of space, in Sweden. Offices comprise almost half the portfolio, with logistics accounting for 37%. The remainder is divided between retail and hotel space.

COMMENT
The transaction follows Starwood Capital Group's November 2013 acquisition, through a controlled affiliate, of seven retail parks and shopping gallerias in Sweden from Kooperativa Forbundet (KF), owner of the country's second-largest supermarket chain, Coop.

'Following our successful entry into Sweden last year, we are now pleased to be expanding our Scandinavian portfolio through our first investment in Norway with such a strong platform of diverse assets,' said Zsolt Kohalmi, head of European acquisitions at Starwood Capital Group.

'Norway has an enviable zero net debt, as well as the highest GDP per capita of any country in Europe. The real estate market is also attractive from our point of view, with unemployment at 3% and very low vacancy levels providing compelling market fundamentals.'

'We look forward to further increasing our presence in the Scandinavian markets as opportunities emerge,' Kohalmi added.

Starwood Capital Group is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut and has $38 bn (€32 bn) of assets under management.