October 30 (SeeNews) - Croatia's AZ pension funds said they acquired 99.9% of local real estate company M7 Primo for 161 million kuna ($25 million/21 million euro) via a capital increase ahead of M7 Primo's planned listing next year.
As part of an ongoing portfolio diversification, in the search for possibilities to guarantee stable returns on investment with at the lowest possible risk, AZ pension funds are launching long-term investments in companies whose business is investing in commercial real estate, pension fund manager AZ said in a statement on Thursday.
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M7 Primo, as a platform for investment in commercial real estate, is planning to use the funding from the capital increase to take over a logistics and distribution centre, and to further expand its business in the commercial real estate sector.
"We acknowledged as an excellent expansion possibility the investment in the logistical and distribution sector, which is rising, especially in the new circumstances influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic," AZ management board member Mario Staroselcic said in the statement.
M7 Real Estate Hrvatska is part of London-based M7 Investment Group, which is a leading specialist in investing and managing commercial real estate on the European and regional market.
M7 via its funds invests solely or in partnership with other institutional investors in real estate projects and currently manages portfolios of over 830 real estates worth over 5.3 billion euro, mainly in the sectors of industry and logistics, office space and shopping centres, located in 14 European countries, including Croatia.
AZ's current investment in the Croatian economy totals 5.2 billion kuna, AZ head Kristijan Buk, said in the statement.
AZ pension funds are managed by Allianz ZB (AZ), a company owned by Allianz Zagreb and Croatia's Zagrebacka Banka.
(1 euro = 7.57208 kuna)