AXA IM Alts has raised €1.9bn over the last seven months to invest in the European life science real estate sector.

The €162bn alternative investments manager said the capital raising which was “significantly oversubscribed”, was backed by a range of clients from North America, Asia and Europe.

Last month, IPE Real Assets reported that AXA IM Alts is attracting about twice the amount of capital it can accommodate for a new European life-sciences real estate fund. As reported, the AXA European Life Science Strategy fund will be built around the Kadans Science Partner life-sciences platform acquired late last year for €500m and was seeking to raise €750m.

At the time, the New Mexico State Investment Council revealed in a board meeting that it had approved a €50m commitment but told IPE Real Assets it did not know how much of this would make it into the fund.

AXA IM Alts said the capital raised will primarily be invested through Kadans, adding that it will enable Kadans to execute new acquisition opportunities and continue to build out its existing development opportunities.

Kadans owns 167,000sqm of operating space across 22 assets in key research locations in the Netherlands, UK and Germany, as well as eight developments which are due to deliver 120,000 sqm of new space over the next three years.

Isabelle Scemama, the global head of AXA IM Alts and CEO of AXA IM - Real Assets, said: “The success of this capital raise underlines our ability to present our clients with opportunities to invest at scale in our key conviction asset classes, such as life sciences, which offer sustainable and growing income returns over the long term.

“Our investment into Kadans and the life sciences sector also dovetails with two of our broader investment themes. Firstly of putting capital to work into opportunities which have strong ESG credentials and make a positive contribution to society and, secondly, of coupling long term investment capital with operational platforms and highly ambitious management teams wishing to operate without the constraint of short term investment horizons.”

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