Norwegian asset manager Ness, Risan & Partners (NRP) has sold its $2bn property business as it focuses on shipping and offshore.
The division has been acquired by Swiss Life Asset Managers (SLAM), which is seeking to expand its geographical footprint in Scandinavia.
NRP managing partner and joint founder Christian Ness will take over as head of SLAM in the Nordics.
The Swiss group will retain NRP’s real estate division of 39 employees and its Oslo office.
NRP manages a varied portfolio of office, retail and industrial properties across the region, with a strong emphasis on logistics.
The company had already sold three Norwegian logistics plants earlier in July.
$2bn under management
At the end of the first quarter, NRP was managing $2bn in property assets.
The company, founded in 2000, has 110 employees in total, with $500m of shipping and offshore assets at the end of the first quarter.
Founding partner Ragnvald Risan will continue to oversee this business.
Ness said: "Following a long and thorough process, we found Swiss Life Asset Managers to be a perfect partner for NRP, with a strategic approach, financial strength, expertise and network that makes this relationship more valuable than the sum of the parts."
He added: "For our real estate team it means business as usual going forward, but also new opportunities to significantly increase our direct investments at the top level of European real estate.”
The parties have agreed not to disclose the sale price.
Subject to the approval of the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority, the transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Leaseback sweet spot
NRP describes its ship investment sweet spot as sale and leaseback deals, with bareboat contracts attached.
Earlier in July, the company expanded its containership fleet by buying majority stakes in two feeder vessels.
Risan told TradeWinds that NRP had acquired 75% of the 2,169-teu Thorswind and Thorsky (both built 1999) from domestic owner Thor Dahl Shipping.
This was done with a number of other unnamed investors, he said.
Thor Dahl will retain 25% and continue to manage the ships.
In May, NRP acquired two chemical tankers in a sale-and-leaseback deal with Axel Eitzen's Christiania Shipping.
The company said it bought the IMO type 2 ships and chartered them back to the Danish operator on a bareboat basis.
