Fund Enters New Venture and Makes Additional Investments in US Property

NBIM and MetLife announced today the initial investment to be held by the joint venture, One Financial Center in Boston Massachusetts, which closed in the beginning of December. The gross value of the asset is 700 million dollars. Net purchase price for NBIM’s 47.5 per cent share is 238 million dollars.

The property One Financial Center is a 46-story office tower consisting of 1.3 million rentable square feet (120,774 square meters). The property is located at 10 Dewey Square, proximate to Boston’s South Station. NBIM has acquired its 47.5 percent share of the asset from One Financial Center Equity, LLC, an affiliate of Beacon Capital Strategic Partners V, L.P., while MetLife will increase the share of the asset it already holds by 2.5 percentage points.

About the joint venture NBIM will hold a 47.5 percent stake in the joint venture, while MetLife, Inc. will have the remaining 52.5 percent stake. NBIM’s joint venture with MetLife, Inc. marks the fund’s third US-focused real estate investment platform. MetLife will be the asset manager of the platform.

MetLife, Inc. is one of the largest investors in the commercial real estate industry with 55.1 billion dollars in real estate invested assets, including 43.1 billion dollars in commercial mortgages and 12.0 billion dollars in equity investments as of year-end 2012.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) is the asset manager for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global. NBIM seeks to safeguard the long-term financial interests of Norway’s future generations through active management and active ownership. The fund is invested globally in equity, fixed-income and real estate markets. It held assets valued at 4,714 billion kroner, or about 810 billion dollars, at the end of third quarter 2013.

Press contact:
Thomas Sevang, Head of Communications & External Relations, NBIM Tel. +47 9260 1756 or +47 2231 6455, e-mail: press@nbim.no