Axa Real Estate Investment Managers has completed the acquisition of a 35% stake in Ruhr Park Shopping Centre in Bochum, Germany, for €231m ($256m).
The purchase is on behalf of Axa Selectiv' Immo, a French-regulated real estate collective investment undertaking, and an Axa insurance company.
The 35% stake has been acquired from Perella Weinberg Real Estate Fund I (PWREF), which previously owned 50% of the centre as part of a joint venture with Unibail-Rodamco, the French commercial property company.
Unibail-Rodamco has now bought the remaining 15% of PWREF's stake in the centre, increasing its holding to 65%, and it will continue to manage Ruhr Park.
Laurent Jacquemin, European head of transactions, said Axa Real Estate remains "convinced of the ability of the retail sector to provide secure, long-term income streams" and continues "to seek out and invest in such assets to the benefit of our clients."
The deal is Axa Real Estate's third shopping centre joint venture in the past 12 months, following the acquisition in 2014 of a 50% stake in Cabot Circus in Bristol in the UK, and the establishment in February 2015 of a joint venture with Eurocommercial Properties to own a 50% stake in the Etrembières Shopping Centre in France.
At the end of March 2015, Axa Real Estate held €9bn of retail assets across 13 European countries, including over 35 shopping centres.
Earlier this month, Axa Real Estate completed the acquisition of Torre Beta, a core office building in Milan, from a fund managed by UBS Real Estate for about €30m ($32.7m) (IAR, 20 July).