ING and ABP agree Holland’s biggest property deal

The property arm of the Dutch bank, announced today, it had struck a deal with pension fund manager ABP which will see the properties of ABP’s wholly-owned, non-listed real estate investment trust KFN, sold into two ING investment funds.

ABP, which chose ING ahead of 13 other bidders, will retain a E365m (£272m) equity stake in the 6.45m, 80-strong portfolio, once the deal completes by the end of the first quarter this year. When the deal completes, KFN’s 44-strong team will also join ING.

George Jautze, chairman and chief executive officer at ING Real Estate said: ‘In the current market conditions this deal offers significant growth opportunities and is a very strong addition to the existing portfolio. It is very rare that an office portfolio of this calibre becomes available on the market.’

Roderick Munsters, chief investment officer at ABP said: ‘The transaction with regard to KFN is a historic moment for ABP. In 1995, ABP placed its direct real estate investments at arm's length in separate retail, housing and office funds.’

‘From the beginning, it was our intention to reduce our interest in these funds to a minority share in order to diversify our real estate portfolio further internationally and to increase liquidity.

'Over the past few years, we have realised our ambitions for the retail fund (now Corio) and the housing fund (now Vesteda).

'We are proud that as a last step in the process our Dutch office portfolio and the KFN team will be moving to a global player, ING Real Estate.

'Moreover, through our co-investment in ING Dutch Office Fund, we can keep a considerable stake in prime Dutch office property.’

Morgan Stanley and Kempen & Co advised ABP and KFN. ING Real Estate was advised by ING Real Estate Capital Advisors.