MAPFRE & Swiss Life invest €300M in Parisian real estate

MAPFRE to channel a further 500 million euros into alternative investments, on top of the 550 million already committed

The vehicle for set up for joint real estate investments by MAPFRE and SWISS LIFE France in 2018 to invest in prime office space in and around Paris has just completed its first operations. Specifically, both partners have invested a total of 296.1 million euros, split down the middle, in nine buildings across the French capital. Total office space comes to 22,000 square meters, making it the largest investment undertaken by MAPFRE in the French real estate market.

All these buildings are located in key areas of Paris: 10 and 12 avenue de Messine; 51 rue d’Anjou; 112 and 114 rue la Boétie; 150 boulevard Haussmann; 43 rue Liège; and four other properties on Cité Paradis.

Swiss Life Asset Managers France set up this joint investment fund with MAPFRE in 2018 with the objective of achieving recurring returns of around 4% per annum. The vehicle is managed by Swiss Life Asset Managers France, the real estate arm of the Swiss insurance firm. Swiss Life Asset Managers France is one of leading real estate investment firms in Europe and has 50 billion euros in assets under management (securities and real estate). It has close to 250 employees responsible for its real estate management, with offices in Paris, Lille and Marseille.

These latest investments reflect the Company’s strategy of diversifying its portfolio to include other types of financial assets and gradually increasing its portfolio of alternative investments in a bid to protect profitability against the prevailing climate of low interest rates. Last Thursday, the Board of Directors green-lighted the investment of a further 500 million euros in alternative investments, which is on top of the 550 million already approved, of which some 350 million has already been used, while the rest is fully committed.

It was announced last year that another co-investment vehicle would be set up alongside real estate firm GLL to invest up to 300 million euros in prime office space across the main office markets of the eurozone over a two or three-year horizon. The Company has now used this vehicle to make its first two investments in two buildings in Paris and Hamburg, worth 50 million euros between them.

MAPFRE has already amassed an impressive real estate portfolio in Spain, notably the building at Plaza de la Independencia in Madrid and the MAPFRE Tower in Barcelona, as well as numerous emblematic properties in other countries, including MAPFRE House in London, the MAPFRE Tower on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City and One Winthrop Square in Boston.