Norway's wealth fund buys new Paris property for S$954m

[OSLO] Norway's sovereign wealth fund bought a retail and office property on Paris's Champs-Elysees for 613 million euros (S$954.4 million) from Groupama S.A., the investor's second real-estate purchase in the French capital over the past month.

The fund, which is the world's biggest of its kind at almost US$1 trillion, agreed to buy a 100 per cent interest in the property located at 79 avenue des Champs-Elysees, Norges Bank Real Estate Management said in a statement. There is no debt attached to the property, and no financing involved in the deal.

Paris's most famous street, the Champs-Elysees, has been one of the focal points of week-end street protests by the so-called Gilets Jaunes against President Emmanuel Macron over the past weeks. The building NBREM is buying hasn't been damaged, spokeswoman Line Aaltvedt said.

The agreement was signed on Dec. 13 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, after the building has been renovated, Aaltvedt said.

The deal follows a 415 million-euro purchase of an office building in central Paris last month.

BLOOMBERG