AXA IM makes €500m life sciences leap
AXA Investment Managers has agreed to acquire Kadans Science Partner from funds advised by Oaktree Capital Management.
The fund manager is understood to have bought the Dutch developer for an initial €500m (£439m) investment, according to market sources.
Kadans is a developer, owner and operator of science parks and lab offices in the Netherlands, the UK and Germany. It has 20 assets spanning 1.6m sq ft of operational space and a further seven schemes of 750,000 sq ft to be developed in the next three years.
AXA Investment Managers has agreed to acquire Kadans Science Partner from funds advised by Oaktree Capital Management.
The fund manager is understood to have bought the Dutch developer for an initial €500m (£439m) investment, according to market sources.
Kadans is a developer, owner and operator of science parks and lab offices in the Netherlands, the UK and Germany. It has 20 assets spanning 1.6m sq ft of operational space and a further seven schemes of 750,000 sq ft to be developed in the next three years.
Kadan was founded in the late 1990s with a focus on developing purpose-built life sciences buildings. Its assets range from offices and incubator space to laboratories and R&D facilities, including climate-controlled environments and pilot plants.
In the UK it has two buildings: a 43,000 sq ft bio and chemistry lab at Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge (pictured) and a Stevenage scheme called Sycamore House, which Kadan is redeveloping.
John O’Driscoll, head of European transactions at AXA IMRA, said: “Kadans is a clear market leader in the life science and lab offices sector, and the acquisition provides us with a unique opportunity to access a fully integrated platform comprising an existing operational portfolio and an extensive development pipeline, together with a management team with unrivalled operational expertise.
“In what is an emerging but fast-growing sector in Europe, our aim is to work with Michel Leemhuis and his team to accelerate the expansion of the Kadans platform across Europe.”
Michel Leemhuis, chief executive of Kadans Science Partner, said: “For many years Kadans has accommodated knowledge-intensive enterprises throughout Europe, based upon our strong belief that the expansion of knowledge is an important driver of economic growth in Europe. The ecosystems we develop therefore aim to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing.”
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Photo © Kadans Science Partner
