The Warburg-Pincus-backed ARA Asset Management has established a European platform to spearhead its expansion outside Asia-Pacific.
The Singapore-based fund manager has signalled its intention to grow through M&A in Europe.
John Lim, ARA’s group CEO, said business expansion initiatives in Europe “will be in the form of real estate investment trusts, private funds and other fund management-related platforms via merger and acquisition”.
ARA has appointed property industry veteran Mark Ebbinghaus, who was most recently global head of real estate with Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, as its senior adviser for the European business. Ebbinghaus will be based in London.
Lim said his fund management business had “set our sights on the global stage”, and that he was “excited to embark on furthering our reach beyond our current presence in Asia-Pacific”.
Currently, ARA manages listed real estate investment trusts and private real estate funds with assets totalling around SGD40bn (€24.8bn) in North and Southeast Asia and Australia.
Since establishing an office in Australia in 2015, ARA has stepped up investment there, building up a portfolio of close to AUD1bn (€634.9m).
ARA has indicated its intention to lift its investment in Australia to AUD2bn.
Late last year, ARA was reported to be mulling over a logistics portfolio, owned by Blackstone, which had an asking price of around AUD200m.
ARA was delisted last year following a SGD1.8bn management buyout led by John Lim and supported by a consortium of investors, including private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
It has a presence in 21 cities in eight Asia-Pacific countries.
