Barings is acquiring Artemis Real Estate Partners, an $11bn (€10.5bn) real estate investment firm, in a deal that bolsters Barings’ position in the US real estate market.
Washington, DC-based Artemis focuses on equity and debt investments across the US, spanning core, core-plus, value-add and opportunistic real estate. The firm founded in 2009 specialises in joint venture partnerships with established, diverse and emerging operating partners, as well as direct investments.
Barings, which manages a global real estate platform of over $50bn, said the acquisition strengthens its position in the US real estate market and accelerates long-term growth by leveraging the firms’ complementary investment capabilities and expertise.
Financial details were left undisclosed.
Mike Freno, chairman and CEO of Barings, said: “We view real estate equity investing as a key pillar of growth within our long-term strategy and believe this acquisition will meaningfully enhance our capabilities. We are excited to bring our complementary platforms together to drive further opportunities on behalf of our investors.”
Deborah Harmon, co-founder and co-CEO of Artemis, said: “We will create a more powerful platform for our investors as Artemis, a Barings company, preserving our culture while creating new opportunities for our team.
“We are deeply grateful to our investors for the past 15 years and look forward to continuing our partnership as a force multiplier for performance and purpose.”
Alex Gilbert, co-CEO of Artemis, said: “Partnership has been fundamental to Artemis since our founding, and today’s announcement represents a natural progression of our decades-long history of building successful teams together.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Barings, combining our extensive relationships and their robust infrastructure to create an even stronger investment platform – one with the capabilities to meaningfully increase access to capital across the risk spectrum for our broad base of joint venture operating partners across the US.”
Penny Pritzker, founder and chairman of PSP Partners, who co-founded Artemis, said: “In this time, the incredible Artemis team has created significant opportunity for our investors.
“Artemis’ partnership with Barings is exciting and the new platform will be a powerhouse in advancing performance and purpose at even greater scale and impact.”
John Ockerbloom, head of US and European real estate at Barings, said: “We believe that Artemis’ team and capabilities will be transformative to our US real estate equity business, enabling us to together accelerate our growth and take advantage of the market opportunity for the benefit of our investors.
“With Artemis, a Barings company, as a key component of our platform, we will further enhance our ability to seek out and unlock relative value across the risk spectrum and deliver the best outcomes for investors.”
Eric Partlan, CIO of Barings’ parent company, MassMutual, said: “We believe this strategic acquisition will not only enhance Barings’ US real estate equity capabilities, but also provide MassMutual with additional investment opportunities in new, diversified assets within our general investment account, ultimately helping to maximise the value we deliver to our policyowners.”
To read the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.
