BVK launches €250m supermarket fund, adds Paris retail asset

Giant German occupational pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) has established a new €250m German retail centre and supermarket fund in partnership with Frankfurt-based retail specialist GPEP. The BVK-Deutschland I-Immobilienfonds – FMZ fund will be launched on Universal Investment's fund platform.

The fund will invest in supermarkets and retail centres throughout German, across a wide risk/reward spectrum, it says. It has already kicked off with its first acquisition, an off-market portfolio of 46 properties in the supermarkets and grocery discount sector, including a few non-food outlets and a DIY store. No price details were given.

The properties are located at established sites in ten German states, mainly Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. The anchor tenants are EDEKA/Netto and the REWE Group. With a rental space of about 115,000 sqm, the annual net rent currently amounts to €8.8m. Around 93% of the rental space is leased out, with the average residual term of the 123 leases being 4.5 years.

Marcel Fuhr, Managing Director of independent GPEP with responsibility for acquisition as well as asset and property management, added: “We have been specialising in the supermarket/retail centre segment for over 10 years and have access to a broad-based network of more than 350 potential sellers. We are therefore in a position to secure attractive off-market transactions and efficiently implement the purchasing process as well as the business plans of portfolios with appreciation potential via our own teams.”

Meanwhile, global real estate investor Hines along with fund administrator Universal Investment has bought a three-storey retail property in Paris for BVK as part of the €1.3bn retail investment mandate it was awarded by the Bavarian pension fund in January 2016. The seller was Crédit Agricole Assurances, with Deutsche Hypo financing the deal.

The 1,500sqm asset at 28 Place de la Madeleine in the city's 8th arrondissement is the second acquisition in Paris, following a deal in the city late last year. It will be added to a portfolio that includes prime buildings in Oslo, Milan, Glasgow, Manchester, Madrid, Barcelona and Copenhagen, now valued at over €900m. The property was completely renovated in 2006, since when it housed the Pinacothèque art gallery, one of the few privately-run museums in the French capital, which closed in 2016.