Bouwinvest Real Estate Investment Management, the Dutch real estate investment manager, has committed €100 million ($116.9 million) to the Hines Pan-European Core Fund.
The commitment helps extend its allocation to core European retail and office markets to benefit from resurgent growth in European economies and in line with a strategy to lift international investments outside the Netherlands to 40 percent of the portfolio from 35 percent.
“Bouwinvest is increasing its allocation to international real estate markets to achieve greater risk diversification across geographies and cycles, while achieving optimal returns,” said Stephen Tross, managing director international investments at Bouwinvest. “The investment with Hines reflects our confidence that their investment philosophy is closely aligned with Bouwinvest’s values and that they can achieve our core-style return targets.”
The Hines Pan-European Core Fund has around €860 million ($1 billion) of assets under management, allocated to cities in Europe. The fund provides a stable net dividend return of 4.0 to 4.5 percent per annum.
The open-ended fund has a low risk profile and focuses on prime office and high street retail assets. The portfolio includes properties in Berlin, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Paris, Dublin, London, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Madrid, Florence, Milan and Copenhagen.
In addition, Bouwinvest has secured a seat on the advisory board of the fund, allowing it to represent the interests of its parent investor bpfBOUW, the Dutch Construction Workers Pension Fund, in the evolution of the investment strategy.
Bouwinvest currently manages five Dutch sector funds. The Residential Fund, Retail Fund and Office Fund are open to institutional investors. While the Healthcare Fund and the Hotel Fund, as well as the international investments, are managed exclusively for bpfBOUW (the Dutch Construction Workers Pension Fund). Internationally, Bouwinvest invests in listed and unlisted real estate in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific and currently has €8.5 billion ($9.9 billion) in assets under management.
