Swiss Life has emerged as the buyer of two central Milan offices for a total of around €150 mln, PropertyEU has learned.
The life insurance group is buying the properties at Via Giorgio Washington 70 and Corso Italia 13 from French private investment firm Ardian and its joint venture partner, Italian asset manager Prelios Sgr.
Ardian bought the assets in its debut Italian transaction in March 2017 as part of the larger Mirò portfolio acquisition consisting of six office buildings. The purchase was made from local fund, Cloe Fondo Uffici on behalf of Ardian’s inaugural European property fund, AREEF 1.
Over the past one and half years Ardian and Prelios have been actively managing the assets investing in a renovation programme, reducing the vacancy rate and re-gearing the leases. The properties currently provide around 23,500 m2 of rentable space.
Ardian, which spun out from AXA as an independent, private company in 2013 and now has $72 bn (€63 bn) assets under management, launched a new business line centred on real estate in 2015. Over the past three years the company has been expanding in France, Germany and Italy. Its first European fund, AREEF 1, closed in March this year with over €700 mln of equity commitments from nearly 50 investors from 11 different countries. The vehicle has a core-plus/value-added investment strategy.
‘We believe commercial real estate in Italy offers strong growth opportunities for our investors and we intend to continue our focus on core plus-value added asset class primarily in Milan and Rome, two of the most interesting cities for real estate investment in Europe,’ commented Rodolfo Petrosino, managing director for Southern Europe at Ardian Real Estate.
The deal is the second acquisition by Swiss Life in Italy this year. Earlier in 2018 the group’s asset management arm made its first foray in the Italian hotel property market with the acquisition of the Novotel hotel in Milan Malpensa and a Radisson Blu property, also in Milan. The assets were bought from BNP Paribas REIM, in a deal brokered by CBRE Hotels.
