The open-ended retail real estate fund LEADING CITIES INVEST sells Chiquita′s headquarters on Lake Geneva

• The sale of the property shows that the LEADING CITIES INVEST strategy continues to bear fruit.
• The large number of transactions and high occupancy rates are evidence of the investment fund’s profitability.

KanAm Grund Group’s open-ended retail real estate fund LEADING CITIES INVEST (ISIN: DE0006791825) has sold the European headquarters building of Chiquita Brands International Sàrl on Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Buyer is UBS Fund Management (Switzerland) AG. The parties have agreed not to disclose the transaction price.

Completed in 2017, the building is situated at La Tuilière 16 in the Swiss municipality of Etoy (between Lausanne and Geneva) and comprises around 3,500 square meters. It had been acquired for the LEADING CITIES INVEST fund in February 2019. This is the sixth property that the retail real estate fund sold following its launch in July 2013. Since then, the investment fund’s management has achieved cumulative growth of 27.0 percent¹ for its investors. The fund’s annual performance in the period from January 1, 2021 until December 31, 2021 was 2.6 percent.¹ Its target group are retail clients with a medium to long term investment horizon.

The strategy of the LEADING CITIES INVEST und continues to bear fruit.           
As the sale of the building shows, the investment fund strategy continues to bear fruit. By investing in the LEADING CITIES INVEST fund, investors can benefit from the growth potential of the world’s leading cities. The investment spectrum includes commercial properties of different types of use – with a current focus on office real estate. Logistics properties, which ensure that cities and metropolitan areas can be supplied with goods and materials, serve as an addition to the portfolio. This type of real estate is usually located on the outskirts of a city or within the transport network of a metropolitan area, with easy access to the highway network.

The Chiquita headquarters in Etoy has excellent links to public transport as well as to the nearest airport via the highway to Lausanne and Geneva. In addition to three office floors above ground level and a central reception area on the ground floor, there are several storage, archiving and technical areas in the underground. The property also offers 73 outdoor parking spaces.

Transaction numbers and high occupancy rate demonstrate the investment fund’s profitability           
After the sale, there is now only one Swiss property in the investment fund portfolio: the more than 6,500-square-meter La Porte d’Eysins building, located in the municipality of Eysins, near Geneva. The real estate portfolio consists now of 41 properties at 26 locations in ten countries. The retail real estate fund is thus broadly diversified. The current occupancy rate is around 94 percent.   
Along with the large number of transactions, the high occupancy rate is clear evidence of the profitability of the fund. The LEADING CITIES INVEST has recently purchased the Fab9 office complex in Finland’s capital Helsinki and the Core Plus property Lambda in the municipality of Hartmannsdorf near Chemnitz in Germany.

KanAm Grund Group uses its in-house research and portfolio models C-Score and Property Selection Modell (PSM) to select promising real estate markets and individual properties for the LEADING CITIES INVEST fund. The two models build on each other and ensure that for all transactions there is centralized delivery of data on quality and expected performance.

The LEADING CITIES INVEST fund takes account of sustainability as well.           
The LEADING CITIES INVEST fund is aligned with Article 8 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). The focus is on the ESG characteristics Environmental and Governance. The KanAm Grund Group goes green strategy aims to achieve sustainability at company and investment fund level. The properties belonging to the investment fund portfolios have also been rated externally for many years with the aim of obtaining certification in accordance with the latest sustainability standards. The LEADING CITIES INVEST currently has 19 properties, valued at around EUR 803 million, that have been certified or are in the process of obtaining certification.               
This represents a certification rate of more than 66 percent of the fund’s total real estate assets. In addition, as part of the LEADING CITIES INVEST goes green initiative, the energy supply of the buildings included in the portfolio has been pooled to make them carbon-neutral while meeting their general electricity and natural gas needs. LEADING CITIES INVEST also participated in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) benchmarking again in 2021 and obtained Green Star status with three stars.

CMS von Erlach Partners AG assisted KanAm Grund Group in legal issues relating to the sale of the property. CBRE provided intermediary services.

¹⁾ Situation as at December 31, 2021, calculation according to the method of the German investment funds association BVI:

calculation basis: unit value; distribution is reinvested. Costs borne by the investor, such as loading charge, transaction costs, securities account and other custody fees, commissions, other charges and fees are not taken into account. Note: this media release does not provide any investment, tax or legal advice. The estimates and forecasts contained in this press release are based on meticulous research. However, KanAm Grund Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH cannot provide any guarantee as to their correctness. Tax-related information is based on the current legal situation. Taxation depends on the personal situation of the investor and may change in future. Past performance of the fund assets is no guarantee for future growth. For the purchase of LEADING CITIES INVEST units only the current annual and half-yearly reports, the sales prospectus with the contractual terms and the key investor information document (KIID) are relevant. These documents can be obtained free of charge from KanAm Grund Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, the depositary M.M.Warburg & CO (AG & Co.) KGaA in Hamburg, Germany, or any of our distribution partners.