Keva, which manages local government, state and church pensions in Finland, plans to extend its real estate investments outside its national borders.

In a statement, Keva said its board of directors decided to direct real estate investments to other Nordic countries, with Sweden as the first market to enter. 

“Swedish real estate will provide a good diversification to the domestic real estate holdings,” it said. 

It added that investments in Swedish property could be in the form of joint ventures with other parties on the Swedish property market.

Keva said the firm HEA Property would be its local partner in Sweden, managing and developing the assets Keva acquired.

At the moment, 7% of Keva’s €45.2bn of total investments are in Finnish real estate.

Of its direct real estate investment, 35% is in offices, 25% in retail, 25% in residential and the rest in ‘other’ sectors.

In other news, Finnish pension insurance company Veritas said it sold an office building in Leppävaara, Espoo to Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management subsidiary RREEF Investment for around €70m, taking advantage of a good market for sellers.

The property, called Sola Business Valley, was built in between 2011 and 2012 and has 16,936 sqm of space.

Peter Karlsson, real estate director at Veritas, said: “This property represents a relatively large portion of our investment portfolio, which is why we decided to sell now that the project is completed and the market is favourable for divestments”.

The building is fully leased as the headquarters for various companies, with Schneider Electric, Aditro and Lujatalo as the main tenants.

Veritas said the office building had received LEED Gold certification.

The pension insurer said it bought the building back in 2011 when it was being built by Lujatalo.

CBRE Finland advised on the sale; Krogerus Attorneys provided legal advice to Veritas. 

Newsec and Hannes Snellman Attorneys acted as advisers for the buyer.

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