has bought its first retail asset in Italy.

The investment manager said the Nuovo Borgo retail centre in Asti was bought for 鈧51.5m for the manager鈥檚 core strategy.

The 16,976sqm asset was sold by for one of its pan-European core investment funds.

Gunther Deutsch, European head of transactions at , said: 鈥淭here is limited competition in the region, meaning the asset is a well established market leader in multi-tenanted retail in Northern Italy and is also well let to a strong mix of tenants.鈥

The investment, Deutsch said, provides an attractive yield and opportunity to drive further value through a targeted asset management programme.

Tenants include Mediaworld, Calzedonia and Pandora.

The deal follows 鈥 first Italian investment .