UNITED STATES - Buchanan Street Partners is considering investing in Europe for the first time by using the proceeds from a recent sale.
This became a possibility as the company recently sold a majority interest in the firm to the TCW Group, and part of the proceeds from the sale will now allow Buchanan to expand its efforts into the European markets, according to Buchanan's CEO Robert Brunswick.
"Moving into Europe is a logical step for our company. The transaction with TCW allows us to do this much quicker than we could have done this on own," said Brunswick.
The company is planning a major trip to Europe next spring to investigate some of the markets, and is taking 35 developers it has worked with in the United States to Prague and Budapest.
A likely long-term scenario for Buchanan is it would setup a regional office in Europe sometime in the future, to extend its real estate strategy of making value-added or core plus transactions through local partners.
More importantly, it is anticipated the deals it might end up doing in Europe could be larger than it has traditionally done in the United States as the transaction with TCW will allow them to raise more capital and go after larger deals.
Real estate deals have traditionally been in the region of $5m (€3.4m) to $15m of equity on a total transaction worth between $20m to $50m.
The firm's next commingled fund, the Buchanan Fund VI, could have a total equity raising of $750m-$1bn and could include some deals in Europe.
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