Korea’s NPS closes on €570m Sony Center

The National Pension Service of Korea has closed on its purchase of the Sony Center, a large office-led property in Berlin, from a consortium led by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing in a deal valued at €570 million.

The purchase of the 135,000 square metre asset is the latest in a European core investment programme  for National Pension Service which has included a number of large investments in London, such as the HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf.

NPS completed the purchase in partnership with Houston-based developer-cum-fund manager Hines. It is a further example of the sovereign wealth fund teaming up with joint venture partners on bespoke investments. In London, NPS has awarded London-based firm Rockspring Property Investment Managers on a separate account basis to source investments.

MSREI sold the asset on behalf of its Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund VI, a legacy fund which both made the headlines for once representing the largest capital raising for a real estate opportunity fund when it closed on $8 billion in June 2007, and more recently for projecting huge losses because of poor performing assets in Europe and Asia. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal last month, the fund was facing a loss of $5.4 billion at one stage.

You can read more about MSREI and its fund series in the June issue of PERE out next week.