AEW has been awarded an initial €250m separate account mandate from a German pension fund for the establishment of a pan-European real estate portfolio.

The new mandate – which will be managed by the AEW’s German platform – with leverage, will have a total investment capacity of €500m.

Marc Langenbach, head of fund and separate accounts Germany at AEW, said: “The aim of the mandate is to build up a portfolio for our investor that is diversified over the long term across asset classes and locations, generating an increased return through active asset management.

“In this context, we will primarily focus on real estate transactions in markets that offer a special window of opportunity or locations that will benefit from attractive growth. We have already identified several investment opportunities for this mandate.”

Stephan Bönning, managing director and head of Germany and Central Europe at AEW, said: “We are pleased that one of our existing clients has entrusted us with further expanding its real estate portfolio through a separate account mandate.

“The mandate was set up under our newly created AIFM and complements our German special fund platform.”