GE Capital Real Estate has made a major purchase in Sweden with the acquisition of property company Stenvalvet.
Stenvalvet, which was previously owned by Credit Suisse First Boston, was founded in 1997 when the CSFB bought 188 properties from government-owned company Vasakronan.
Stenvalvet has 169 commercial properties totalling 844,000m2, with two-thirds of the portfolio concentrated in greater Stockholm and 11 other medium-sized municipalities. The portfolio has a 92% occupancy rate spread across 770 leases.
“We bought it for two reasons: we like the operating company, and we like the assets,” said Jeff Malehorn, senior vice president and managing director Europe of GE Capital Real Estate. GE is now working on future strategy for the company including looking at integration with its other Swedish activities. GE has had a presence in the Nordic markets since 1995. In addition to the Stenvalvet portfolio, the company has 225 assets and invested $270m in the region.
Plans to float Stenvalvet were mooted by CSFB in 1999 but never came to fruition. US investor Crown NorthCorp also took a stake in Stenvalvet in 1997 with CSFB but has since been bought out.
GE sees investing in operating companies as an important part of its strategy in Europe. Its major purchase in this arena was acquiring MEPC, the UK’s fourth-largest property company in a joint venture with UK fund manager Hermes. The size of the transaction was £1.92bn. Other investments into operating companies by GE include UIS in France and Renta Immobiliaria in partnership with Spanish property company GMP.
