Axa Investment Managers - Real Assets (Axa IMRA) has acquired a development site in Paris' business district; sold a Paris office building; and has closed a real estate venture fund to new investors after raising €445m ($496m).
Tour Norma acquisition
The France-headquartered real estate portfolio and asset manager completed the acquisition of Tour Norma, a development site next to La Défense business district in Paris, France, on behalf of one of its clients. The project will start in September 2016 and aims to take advantage of a building permit for the construction of a new 18,500sqm office building, which was previously obtained by developer Redman. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
"This acquisition highlights the attraction of key office markets to our clients and, in particular, La Défense and its immediate surrounding area," Nathalie Charles, head of asset management and transactions for Southern Europe at Axa IMRA, said. "With slowing levels of office supply in the vicinity and delivery of new buildings not expected until after 2018, we expect to generate satisfactory levels of demand from occupiers."
This transaction follows Axa IMRA's recent acquisition of Tour First in La Défense, the tallest building in France, on behalf of a club of investors. It also adds to its portfolio of Parisian assets and developments, including QU4DRANS, a major scheme comprising 86,000sqm of office space across four buildings in Paris' 15th arrondissement.
QU4DRANS sale
Parenthetically, Axa IMRA has sold the 25,800sqm East building of its QU4DRANS development, which it acquired in May 2011 on behalf of Development Venture III, the third generation of a pan-European development vehicle it manages.
The QU4DRANS scheme comprises four independent office buildings – North, South, East and West – totalling 86,000sqm, which have been built out in two phases. The first phase of QU4DRANS, which includes the 25,800sqm East and 20,000sqm South buildings, was finished at the end of 2015 and quickly drew tenant and investor interest, with the East building selling within six months of completion. Phase two of the project was launched in December 2015 and provides an additional 40,000sqm of office space across the North and West buildings.
Pierre Vaquier, CEO of Axa IMRA said: "This first transaction leaves us confident in the prospects of commercialising the remaining three buildings."
Closing of PEVAV
Rounding off a busy week, Axa IMRA closed the Pan-European Value-Added Venture (PEVAV), a fund it manages, after raising a total of €445m from a global institutional investor base. This gave the manager an investment capacity of up to €890m, including leverage to invest in value-adding opportunities throughout Europe.
PEVAV pursues a dual value-added strategy, which focuses on office, retail and logistics assets, with space to also invest in hotel, healthcare, residential and other alternative real estate assets. Axa IMRA has already invested or committed more than 75% of the equity raised for PEVAV across eight acquisitions in the UK, Spain and Italy, including Assembly London, a three-acre urban campus development in Hammersmith, West London; St Andrews House, an office scheme in London's Midtown; an office building located in Manoteras, Madrid; and Porta Siena, a shopping centre in Siena, Italy.
Ian Chappell, head of value add and development funds, commented: "By leveraging the significant experience of Axa IM - Real Assets in the value-add space, we believe the venture is well positioned to benefit from actively managing underperforming assets with inherently core investment characteristics, capturing the pricing appreciation arising from successful execution."
Axa IMRA, a real estate portfolio and asset manager that is part of French insurance group Axa, has managed and executed 250 development projects in eight European countries for a total of €13.2bn since 2000. It also has €10.5bn of projects currently under development, €3.9bn of which are in France.