AXA Real Estate Investment Managers completed acquisition of office buildings in Brussels, Belgium through sale and lease back operation for €34.8 million

PARIS, 2-2-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (“AXA Real Estate”), the leading real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe(1), announces that it has completed the acquisition of office buildings in Brussels, Belgium, through a sale and lease back operation, for a total consideration of €34.8 million. The acquisition was made on behalf of AXA Belgium.

The fully-let property comprises 22,750 sqm of office space in total and is situated within the decentralised area of Brussels. It is strategically located to benefit from various local amenities and public transport links such as the train, bus, tram and metro, as well as being in close proximity to Brussels Airport.

AXA Real Estate, recognised as one of the market leaders in asset, property and fund management within the Benelux region with €4 billion of assets under management, currently has a team of 45 highly skilled real estate professionals on the ground, working throughout the region to deploy capital and source investment opportunities on behalf of clients.

AXA Real Estate, on behalf of its clients, undertook €750 million of acquisitions in Belgium during 2014, and a further €100 million in Luxembourg. AXA Real Estate targets investments in offices, retail, logistics, residential and hotels within the Benelux region.

Guy Van Wymersch, Head of Benelux at AXA Real Estate, commented: “Completing this acquisition once again demonstrates AXA Real Estate’s ability to leverage its local teams experience and ability to navigate the unique characteristics of Belgian real estate, such as low yields and rental indexation, in order to successfully invest in this market on behalf of our clients.”

“This inherent market knowledge is vital to operating in the Benelux region and has been a major contributing factor in allowing us to invest over €850 million of capital into prime assets during 2014 in this market. During 2015, we expect to continue investing in Belgium on behalf of our clients.”

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AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (AXA Real Estate), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AXA Investment Managers, is the largest real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe(1), with over €54 billion of assets under management as at the end of December 2014. It has over 160 third party institutional clients spread across the world, in addition to managing funds for 10 AXA insurance companies.

With over 500 real estate professionals operating in 23 countries, AXA Real Estate’s competitive advantage stems from its global fund management expertise combined with extensive on-the-ground deal sourcing, asset management and development execution capabilities.

AXA Real Estate structures and actively manages or advises investment products, seeking wide ranging opportunities along the risk spectrum to deliver targeted returns commensurate with clients’ risk profiles, through a variety of investment strategies. These range from core to value-add and opportunistic, countryspecific to geographically-diversified, sector-specific to multi-sector, with the capacity to invest at all levels of the capital structure.

Global growth remains a key priority and AXA Real Estate has expanded its presence in both the U.S. and Asia. Assets under management have grown from €17 billion 15 years ago to over €54 billion today.

Visit our website: http://www.axa-realestate.com/

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-expert asset management company within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with approximately €607 billion in assets under management as of the end of September 2014. AXA IM employs over 2,400 people around the world and operates out of 26 offices in 21 countries.

Visit our internet website: www.axa-im.com

(1)Source: INREV Survey 2013 published in May 2014

Press Contacts

AXA Real Estate
Charline Coué, Media Relations
charline.coue@axa-im.com

Jocelyne Tamssom, Head of Communications
jocelyne.tamssom@axa-im.com
Tél.: +33 1 44 45 97 95

FTI Consulting Inc.
Richard Sunderland, Ellie Sweeney, Clare Glynn Tél.: +44 20 3727 1000 AXARealEstate@fticonsulting.com