NETHERLANDS – The Stork and PNO Media pension funds are to transfer their €90m Dutch real estate portfolio to, and become shareholders in, real estate group Altera Vastgoed.

The funds will become shareholders in Altera and its four sector portfolios – retail, residential, business and industrial – from 1 January 2006.

This brings the total shareholders to 24 – up from just nine in 2004.

The funds’ real estate portfolio included a total of 27 premises, of which €60m was in retail, more than €5m in residential, roughly €12m in smaller office buildings and more than €12m in industrial buildings.

“Both pension funds have decided to keep their allocation in real estate but to withdraw from having their own direct real estate portfolio, and to change their real estate investment in indirect holdings by participating in private real estate funds such as Altera,” said Altera chief executive Rene Hogenboom.

Hogenboom told IPE that Altera plans to increase its sector portfolios. He also welcomed the new shareholders.

“For Stork and PNO it means that they will participate in portfolios that are much larger and therefore a lower risk than their former real estate portfolio, professional management and flexibility,” said the CEO.

“They will be able to enter and or exit on a quarterly basis, and they will be able to switch amongst the real estate sector portfolios of Altera.”

Altera was set up in 2000 to offer pension funds the opportunity to invest indirectly in one or several Dutch property sectors with their own preferred sector allocation.

Earlier it emerged that ABP intends to sell part of its 60% stake in Dutch real estate fund Vesteda.

The news, which came at Vesteda’s AGM, is in line with an agreement in 2001 when ABP acquired the majority shareholding and had been anticipated.

The ABP stake will be offered first to Vesteda existing shareholders, with the sale expected in the first quarter of 2006 after Vesteda’s portfolio has been assessed and valued.




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