World's biggest wealth fund buys US$1 billion Paris property
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PARIS (BLOOMBERG) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, paid 1 billion euros (S$1.51 billion) to buy a property at Paris's exclusive Place Vendome from companies controlled by Irish investors John Magnier and JP McManus.
The US$870 billion fund will acquire a 100 per cent stake in the 26,800 square-meter Vendome Saint-Honore property, of which 80 percent is rentable office space and 20 per cent retail space, Norges Bank Investment Management said Friday in a statement on its website. The sellers were Trajan Luxembourg Sarl and Trajan Luxembourg II Sarl.
"No financing was used in the acquisition and the asset will be held unencumbered by debt," NBIM said. The agreement was signed and completed on Friday.
Norway's fund, which invests the country's income from petroleum production in international stocks, bonds and real estate, has increased property investments since it first ventured into that asset class in 2011. Property made up 3.1 per cent of its total holdings at the end of the third quarter. The fund owns properties from New York to London and Paris, and is looking to expand into Asia.
Magnier and McManus, who are racehorse owners and businessmen, bought the building from Hammerson Plc and the real estate asset management unit of Axa SA in 2007 for about 616 million euros.
