United Bankers Plc’s special investment fund UB Nordic Property Fund (AIF) has today agreed to sell a portfolio consisting of seven properties to the Norwegian real estate company, RELOG, with REITAN Eiendom as the main shareholder. In Finland REITAN, the main owner of REITAN Eiendom is known, among other things, as the owner of the R-kioski chain. The aggregate value of the real estate portfolio focusing on logistics real estate and production facilities amounts to EUR 96 million. Three of the properties are located in Sweden, two in Norway, one in Finland and one in Denmark. The fund’s effective annual rate of return (IRR) from the properties to be sold amounts to approximately 18.0 per cent.

The real estate transaction now agreed upon will have a substantial positive impact on the return of the fund in the third quarter of the year 2021. The fund will book a performance fee of approximately EUR one million from the transaction. This will have a positive impact on United Bankers’ profit development in the latter half of the year.

”The activity within the Nordic real estate market has recently accelerated to a very high level. Also many larger portfolio deals have been made in the active market with portfolio premiums. The UB Nordic Property Fund’s transaction is a clear sign of the attractiveness of the Nordic real estate market. We have been developing the fund’s real estate portfolio for a number of years and it is our intention to continue to actively create value for our unitholders also going forward. With the sale of this portfolio comprising several properties, we will achieve a substantial value appreciation for our investors. I am confident that as a result of this sale, we will be in an excellent position to further develop the fund’s real estate portfolio, with the capital now released being invested in higher yielding, and possibly, also in larger properties. The high expectations are supported by the fact that the year would appear to be turning out to be unprecedentedly active within the Nordic real estate market. Also for the fund, the investment pipeline would appear to be very good”, says Jaakko Onali, portfolio manager for the UB Nordic Property Fund.

RELOG has been a long-term partner of UB Nordic Property Fund. Christian Wist, CEO of RELOG describes the significance of the transaction from RELOG’s perspective: ”The transaction we have agreed on with the UB Nordic Property Fund is extremely important for us strategically. In the acquisition of a total of seven properties, the extensive Nordic diversification we sought was important to us. The portfolio of high-quality real estate combined with attractive development opportunities supports the rapid and strategic growth of our real estate portfolio.”

The strategy of the UB Nordic Property Fund is to invest in real estate properties with a stable return in all the Nordic countries. The fund invests in logistics and production facilities, offices, retail properties and land plots.

The UB Nordic Property Fund (AIF) is part of United Bankers' family of real asset investment products, comprising real estate and timberland funds, as well as funds investing in the shares of real estate and infrastructure companies. The group’s assets under management at the end of June 2021 amounted to approximately EUR 4.2 billion, with approximately 36 per cent being invested in real assets.