Cordea Savills is to pay €21.5m (£15.6m) for SEB Asset Management, giving the fund manager a German platform with access to Asian and European institutional capital.
Swedish banking group SEB is selling the Frankfurt-based arm, which has €10bn of real estate assets under management, 25 years after creation.
Cordea Savills, which currently manages around €7.2bn of assets, will change its name to Savills Investment Management, bring its brand closer to that of its parent company Savills.
SEB Asset Management, which has 148 staff in Frankfurt and Singapore, has been selling assets from its €6bn German open ended funds as part of an ongoing liquidation process.
Cordea Savills said it will continue to wind down the funds following its purchase of SEB Asset Management.
Institutional funds account for the remaining €4bn of SEB Asset Management’s assets.
The latter’s current chief executive, Barbara Knoflach, will leave during the sale of the platform, which is pending approval from German regulator BaFin.
Cordea Savills said it will also offer real estate services to SEB Group clients.
Justin O’Connor, chief executive of Cordea Savills, said the deal was an opportunity to create a “leading investment manager in Europe and Asia”.
”SEB Asset Management will add to our critical mass and enhance our ability to offer investment opportunities to clients globally,” he said.
Media reports in October last year suggested Cordea Savills was favourite to buy European retail property fund manager Pradera, which has €2.3bn in assets under management in nine countries.
However, Pradera this month said it is to remain independent after a management buyout.
Co-founder Colin Campbell, who already owns 40% of Pradera’s holding company Kuno, purchased business partner Paul Whight’s 60% stake for an undisclosed sum. Pradera said the deal will complete by April.
