(LONDON) – Hines, the international real estate firm, and German investment company Universal-Investment have acquired a retail asset on Glasgow’s prime shopping street from Hermes Investment Management, the £24.1 billion manager focused on delivering superior, sustainable, risk-adjusted returns to its clients - responsibly.
The acquisition was made for an institutional real estate fund on the platform of Universal-Investment, administered and managed on behalf of Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), Germany’s largest pension scheme group with approximately €62 billion assets under management. This deal is part of its €1.3 billion investment mandate from BVK which is targeting prime high-street retail assets across Europe.
229-249 Buchanan Street is located in the heart of Glasgow’s retail core directly opposite the city’s premier shopping centre Buchanan Galleries and immediately adjacent to Buchanan Quarter. The building, which has a listed façade, is 65 percent occupied by three leading fashion and sports brands, with one unit vacant.
The property represents the first acquisition in the UK for the BVK European high-street retail account, which Hines was awarded in December 2015. Acquisitions of prime high-street retail assets were previously made in Oslo and Milan totalling over €100 million of value.
Jake Walsh, director Hines UK, said, “This represented a rare off-market opportunity to acquire a prime retail asset of scale in an excellent location in the city’s retail core. It fully meets our criteria and offers an immediate value-add opportunity with the vacant unit.”
Chris Taylor, head of private markets at Hermes Investment Management, said, “The sale of 229-249 Buchanan Street comes at an appropriate time in the market cycle for a value-add asset in this location. We will be redeploying the capital from selling the property into other opportunities.”
Lars Huber, Co-CEO of Hines Europe, added, “We are very pleased with the speed at which we have been able to identify and acquire core-plus and value-add assets in prime retail locations for BVK, and we are making good progress in building their portfolio. We are continuing to target other assets meeting this criteria across 20 countries in Europe and look forward to announcing further transactions in the near future.”
About Hines
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 182 cities in 20 countries. Hines has $89.1 billion of assets under management, including $42.5 billion for which Hines provides fiduciary investment management services, and $46.6 billion for which Hines provides third-party property-level services. The firm has 109 developments currently underway around the world. Historically, Hines has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,126 properties, totaling over 351 million square feet. The firm’s current property and asset management portfolio includes 457 properties, representing over 193 million square feet. With extensive experience in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and a pioneering commitment to sustainability, Hines is one of the largest and most-respected real estate organizations in the world. Visit www.hines.com for more information.
About Bayerische Versorgungskammer
Bayerische Versorgungskammer is the competence and service centre for occupational and communal pension schemes and Germany´s largest pension scheme group under public law. It is the joint executive body of twelve liberal professions´ and communal pension schemes. Bayerische Versorgungskammer covers about 2 million insured persons in total, with contributions of €4 billion and €2.9 billion pension payments annually. It currently has €62 billion assets under management and 1,200 employees. Visit www.versorgungskammer.de for more information.
About Universal-Investment
Universal-Investment is the largest independent investment company in German-spoken Europe with fund assets in excess of about EUR 260 billion under administration, thereof EUR 220 billion in own vehicles, over 1,000 funds and investment mandates and a workforce of around 600. The focus lies on the efficient and transparent administration of funds, securities, real estate and alternative asset classes. Universal-Investment was founded in 1968 as subsidiary of several well-known private banks. The company is headquartered in Frankfurt/Main and has subsidiaries and holdings in Luxemburg and Austria. As pioneer of the investment industry Universal-Investment is now market leader in the areas of master-KVG and private label funds. Members of the management board are Oliver Harth (deputy spokesman), Markus Neubauer, Stefan Rockel, Alexander Tannenbaum and Bernd Vorbeck (spokesman of the management board). (As per 31 March 2016) Visit www.universal-investment.com for more information.
About Hermes Investment Management
Hermes is focused on delivering superior, sustainable, risk adjusted returns for our clients – responsibly.
Hermes manages assets on behalf of more than 280 clients* across equities, fixed income, alternatives and real estate, with £24.1 billion* assets under management. In Hermes EOS, we have the industry’s leading engagement resource, advising on more than £169.8 billion* of assets.
We believe in Excellence, Responsibility and Innovation
- Excellence: We aspire to excellence in everything we do. This manifests itself most visibly in our investment performance. We will only offer products to our clients where we believe there is a strong investment thesis and where we can deliver sustainable alpha.
- Responsibility: We believe it is our responsibility to lead discussion and debate about the fiduciary responsibilities of fund managers to our clients, their stakeholders and, ultimately, society at large. We have always sought positive engagement with the firms in which we invest.
- Innovation: We have the entrepreneurial culture to identify forward-looking products that meet those needs, along with the resources and speed-to-market mentality to develop them rapidly.
Our structure gives clients globally the benefit of access to a broad range of specialist, high conviction investment teams operating within an established and robust operating platform.
Hermes' investment solutions include:
- Private markets - International real estate, pooled funds, segregated mandates, UK commercial real estate, UK commercial real estate debt, UK private rental sector real estate, infrastructure and
private equity - High active share equities - Asia, global emerging markets, Europe, global, and small and mid cap
- Specialist fixed income - Absolute return credit, global high yield bonds, multi strategy credit
- Multi asset - Multi asset inflation
- Responsible investment services - Corporate engagement, intelligent voting and public policy engagement
* Source: Hermes as at 31 March 2016 with the exception of one portfolio totalling £89.7m valued as at 31 January 2016.
Please note the total AUM figure includes £4.8bn of assets managed or under an advisory agreement by Hermes GPE LLP (“HGPE”), a joint venture between Hermes Fund Managers Limited ("HFM") and GPE Partner Limited. HGPE is an independent entity and not part of the Hermes group. £0.2bn of total group AUM figure represents HFM mandates under advice.