AIP leads €480 million acquisition of OP Cooperative’s Vallila campus

AIP leads €480 million acquisition of OP Cooperative’s Vallila campus in Helsinki, Finland on behalf of South Korean-Finnish consortium

Seoul-based AIP Asset Management, in close cooperation with Helsinki-based investment manager Avant Asset Management, has acquired the headquarter office campus of the largest financial institution in Finland, OP Financial Group, for a purchase price of €480 million on behalf of NH Investment & Securities, Shinhan Investment Corp., and Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company.
The acquisition represents the largest ever single-asset office acquisition in the Finnish real estate market, and the first acquisition of an office property in Finland by Korean investors.
Danny Kim, CEO of AIP says, “The acquisition of the OP campus represents a strong continuation of our strategy to diversify into the Nordics after our purchase of the Novo Nordisk property in Copenhagen, Denmark last year, which was the first office acquisition in the Nordics by South Korean investors.”
“We have tremendous confidence in the Helsinki market for a number of reasons, including the comparatively attractive yields, strong liquidity, and transparent business environment. Going forward, we will continue to focus on acquiring properties in the Nordics as well as in select other European cities”, continues Danny Kim.
The property is located in the Vallila submarket, which is the largest financial district in Finland and part of Helsinki’s axis-of-growth located between the fast-developing districts of Pasila and Kalasatama.
The campus was completed in 2017 and contains 7 modern, fully interconnected buildings that altogether provide 74,150 square meters of leasable area, forming the largest single office complex in Finland and accommodating approximately 6,000 employees.
The majority of the campus is let to OP Cooperative, the central cooperative of the OP Financial Group, on a long-term lease with the remainder being leased to Senate Properties (Finnish Tax Authority), altogether representing an exceptionally strong investment grade tenant profile.