UK - The West Midlands Pension Fund has purchased a £36.5m (€39.6m) supermarket property in Birmingham from Land Securities, to strengthen its position for the future.
The Asda store property, which is located in Great Barr, Birmingham, and covers over 100,000 square feet, was purchased through ING Real Estate on 6 March.
Mike Hardwick, the pension fund's investment manager, said: "The property provides long secure income streams in line with the pension fund's long-term investment strategy. It also increases the fund's holdings in recession-resilient assets, whilst still providing a strong probability of upside through rental growth."
The £6bn pension fund currently allocates between 7-10% to real estate and has a property portfolio valued at around £520m.
Hardwick told IPE Real Estate the pension fund was within its target range for exposure to property and was "under no great pressure to invest further", though it would continue investing in compelling direct and indirect opportunities.
"The fund will continue on the current path of acquiring assets or funds that are historically cheap but are backed by strong underlying fundamentals that are likely to produce strong performance going forward," said Hardwick.
The supermarket is fully let to Asda Stores Ltd until 2038 at £2.37m per annum, but is subject to rent reviews every five years.
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