NETHERLANDS - The €201bn civil service pension fund ABP has decreased its majority stake in real estate group Vesteda to 46.7%, Vesteda said.

During five transactions, ABP has sold 13.4% of equity, worth €450m in total. The amount was slightly above the balance sheet value, it added.

According to Vesteda, ABP's decision is in line with the scheme's intention to scale back to a maximal minority stake, because it wants to further diversify internationally.

ABP sold its stake to Vesteda's other shareholders. Deloitte Financial Advisory Services covered the transaction.

The €4bn non-listed Vesteda Group is a real estate investment fund with housing as its sole focus.  It aims at the higher end of the letting sector. Since its start - almost ten years ago - it has generated over 10% on its own assets yearly, it said.

Vesteda stems from the ABP Housing Fund. Since the early nineties, ABP's strategy consists of indirectly investing in real estate internationally. As a consequence, it has put Dutch real estate at a distance in independent sectoral real estate funds: Retail investments Netherlands, or WBN which has merged with Corio in the meantime, Offices Fund Netherlands (KfN), and Vesteda.

Vesteda's shareholders are institutional investors, e.g. banks, insurers and pension funds. Amongst them are the €77bn healthcare scheme PGGM, ABP itself and ABP's subsidiaries Loyalis Leven and Loyalis Schade.
 

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