The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), has reached a deal to purchase a 25% stake of Shaftesbury Capital’s Covent Garden portfolio for £570m ($739m), the entirety of which is valued at £2.7b ($3.5b).
“This investment underscores our belief in the strength of London with the portfolio complementing our other high quality West End investments,” noted Jayesh Patel, NBIM’s head of UK real estate. “Covent Garden is one of the world’s most recognised retail, leisure and cultural destinations,” he added.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Shaftesbury Capital chief executive Ian Hawksworth said: “This partnership brings together two long-term investors who have a shared confidence in ambitions for the growth prospects of the Covent Garden estate and the West End”.
The deal comes after NBIM announced a £306m ($396m) deal with Grosvenor, the property management company owned by the Duke of Westminster, in January, which also gave it a 25% stake in its Mayfair property portfolio.
NBIM manages $1.7tn of Norway’s funds which largely derive from the country’s oil profits. These deals bring its investment in London to £875m ($1.1b). It is also a shareholder of Shaftesbury, where it has a 25% stake in the company. The fund also purchased the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield last year for £360m ($467m), becoming its sole owner.
The fund has been very active in purchasing London real estate since 2011 when it bought a stake in the Crown Estate’s Regent Street portfolio. It owns property in Mayfair, Soho, and now Covent Garden.
SWFs managed $13.2t in assets in 2024, making them attractive targets for investment promotion agencies. A recent study highlighted that, in 2024, funds invested the most in finance, tech, industrial/automotive and healthcare.
