OSLO: The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s €1 billion purchase of a Paris office and retail building from Irish horse-racing tycoons John Magnier and JP McManus was the Oslo-based investors’ largest property deal last year, according to its annual report.
The 7,510 billion kroner (€845 billion) Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, devoted almost half its €2.16 billion of real-estate acquisitions expenditure to the purchase of the Irish investors’ Place Vendome Saint-Honore in the French capital.
Magnier and McManus bought the property in 2007 for €650 million from UK property group Hammerson and French insurer Axa’s real-estate management unit. They subsequently spent a considerable sum refurbishing the building.
