Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is branching out on its own in the capital after securing its second trophy London office deal without a joint venture partner.
Norges Bank Investment Management has gone under offer to buy 74,573 sq ft Queensberry House, W1, for around £190m – a 4% yield.
It is buying the block at 3-9 Burlington Street, where it occupies 17,000 sq ft, from Italian investor Sorgente Group.
Other tenants include Evans Randall and Summit Partners.
Norges has traditionally invested in London alongside joint venture partners such as the Crown Estate.
It made its debut in the capital in 2010 buying a 25% stake in Regent Street from the Crown Estate for £448m.
A series of joint ventures followed, including its August 2014 acquisition of a 64.2% holding in the Pollen Estate for £318m, again with the Crown.
However, last month the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund completed its first deal without a London partner – the £582.5m acquisition of the Merrill Lynch Financial Centre on King Edward Street, EC1, from Singaporean fund GIC.
The move to invest independently replicates the oil-financed fund’s strategy in Paris. In August this year NBIM bought a 100% interest in a 333,700 sq ft mixed-use building in the French capital called Le Madeleine from BlackRock Europe Property Fund III for €425.6 (£334.4m).
One West End investment agent said: “Norges is starting to depart from the norm. It has a big war chest of capital to invest and working in joint ventures makes it harder to spend all of it, so we could see more solo buys.”
CBRE is acting for Norges; Knight Frank is advising Sorgente.
