Niam.

The Nordic fund manager teamed up with AP Fastigheter in its purchase of Swedish state real estate company Vasakronan and came away with 41 non-core assets for its fourth opportunistic fund

After Niam revealed that it had been one of the original companies to be approached in the sell-off of the former Swedish state owned real estate company Vasakronan, Nordic fund manager Niam bought a slice of Vasakronan last month.The company was sold in the summer to AP Fastigheter, after months of speculation as to whether Vasakronan would be sold or floated on the stock market.Sweden-based Niam's purchase of a portfolio of 41 Vasakronan assets across Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, Lund and Uppsala for 750m increased the fund manager's assets under management to 1.9bn. With such a big increase to its portfolio, Niam said that it had been fortunate to have had time to prepare. But it is also in negotiations to take on some of Vasakronan's staff, including technicians and property managers.Johan Bergman, managing director of Niam, said that his company was originally approached as a potential buyer of the whole of Vasakronan, but that it was too big and had too many core assets."This is why we teamed up with AP and together we came to an agreement to carve out some 25% of the properties. We still like to look at this as an opportunistic deal, but the properties aren't particularly opportunistic as such. Some of them have clear project development rights and some have opportunities for leasing up," he says.The assets were purchased for Niam Fund IV, which it raised in 2008. It has around 700m of equity and an investment capacity of 2.5bn to 3bn. The vehicle has an opportunistic investment strategy and targets deals valued at more than 75m across all property sectors in the Nordic and Baltic regions.The fund still has the capacity to invest between 1.7bn and 2.2bn. Bergman explains that there are a number of opportunities in the market and it has some deals in the pipeline. "There is a correction taking place at the moment, but in the Baltics it is happening at double speed. Yields are coming up quite dramatically, so I would probably not advocate entering the region this year, but we will keep an eye on the market because there will be a right time to go back into it," he said.Niam was formed in 1998 and has since raised, invested and liquidated Niam Fund I and Niam Fund II. Today it focuses on its two ...