AXA IMRA buys Blackstone German healthcare portfolio for €310m

AXA Investment Managers–Real Assets has bought a portfolio of 17 healthcare assets in western Germany for €310m from private equity firm Blackstone.

The Paris-based fund manager bought on behalf of a consortium of investors comprising AXA insurance companies and two funds for retail investors, AXA Selectiv’ Immo and AXA Selectiv’ Immoservice. The transaction brings AXA IMRA healthcare assets under management in Europe to more than €850m.

The German deal follows a recent €65m investment in Finnish healthcare property and similar investments last year in Italy and Spain.

The 177,000 sqm portfolio in Germany includes 16 freehold nursing homes and one rehabilitation centre and contains 2,788 beds. The assets are operated under lease contracts with five separate operators, including one of Germany’s largest nursing home operators, which occupies 13 of the properties.

The majority of the portfolio is located in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, while two homes are in Baden-Württemberg, two in Bavaria and one asset is situated in Hesse.

AXA IMRA said demographic trends in these parts of Germany was expected to fuel further growth in the market for nursing homes over the coming decade.

Hideki Kurata, head of alternatives and special situations, said the deal illustrated AXA IM-RE’s “continued commitment to alternative real estate asset classes and further strengthens our foothold across all of our preferred sub-sectors, with European healthcare demonstrating particularly favourable investment fundamentals”.

AXA IMRA recently announced that it had raised about €1.4bn for its latest commercial property real estate senior debt fund, Commercial Real Estate Senior 10. The fund marks the tenth generation of AXA IMRA CRE senior funds, bringing its total debt platform to €13 bn.

For the first time the fund has an initial mandate to invest in US loans, with an allocation of up to 25% to capitalise on the growing US economy. AXA IMRA has been active in US debt fund lending since 2014, as part of its wider expansion into the US market.

Timothy Rauly, head of CRE finance and core funds at AXA IMRA, said "The fund will target senior debt in the office, retail, logistics, light industrial and some alternative asset class sectors, such as healthcare."