Avant Acquisition

Avant and AIP Acquire €480m Office Helsinki Office

Avant Asset Management, together with AIP Asset Management (AIP), have lead a consortium which includes Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, NH Investment & Securities (NHIS) and Shinhan Investment Corp., to acquire OP Cooperative’s headquarters in Helsinki in a €480 million sale and leaseback transaction. Avant and AIP will continue acting as co-investment managers for the deal. In connection with the transaction, OP Financial Group has signed a long-term lease contract for the property.

The office campus is located in Vallila, which is the largest financial centre concentration in Finland and part of Helsinki’s axis-of-growth being located between fast-developing districts of Pasila and Kalasatama. The office campus offers 74,150 sq m of lettable area and forms the largest single office complex in Finland accommodating approximately 6,000 employees. The value of the transaction is €480 million, making it the largest ever single-asset office transaction in the Finnish real estate market.

“The weight of global capital targeting the Helsinki office market is significant and liquidity is at an all-time high, as evidenced by this record-sized transaction. This highly competitive process was a true collaboration across several regions resulting in a new investor entering the Finnish market, adds Henrik Calton, Head of Investment Properties at CBRE Finland.

CBRE represented OP’s sole commercial advisor in the transaction and Castrén & Snellman acted as OP’s legal advisor. The purchaser was advised by Krogerus Attorneys.