BentallGreenOak has raised €1.46bn for its third European value add-fund real estate fund, exceeding its initial €1bn target.
In addition, BentallGreenOak raised €450m for co-investments opportunities in Italy and the Nordics.
Julie Wong, managing partner and global head of capital raising at BentallGreenOak, said it had 86% of its existing investors committing to the latest fund as well as some new investors.
In total, the European value add-fund attracted capital commitments from 37 institutional investors from across the globe, including the US, Canada, the Middle East, Europe, Japan and South Korea, bringing together a diversified and strong investor base, Wong said.
The fund will be largely focused on sectors that are benefitting from structural growth in demand, specifically logistics, including cold storage and urban logistics, life sciences and data centres, as well as those that are experiencing cyclical challenges that are impacting values, the manager said.
More than 50% of the fund’s capital has already been deployed through 27 investments made across the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark, it said.
Toby Phelps, managing partner and head of European equity at BentallGreenOak, said: “We have teams located on-the-ground in all key European markets with an extensive track record in acquiring, developing and managing assets.
”Their expertise and solution-oriented approach makes BentallGreenOak a preferred counterparty in those markets. Our team’s professionalism, focus and commitment is the reason for our successful track record and sustained interest from new and existing investors.
Francesco Ostuni, managing partner and European equity CIO at BentallGreenOak, said: “Since our first fund in 2014, we have been laser-focused on delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns to our investors whilst utilising prudent levels of leverage in the 50-60% range.
“We have built up significant expertise across all major asset types but specifically logistics which forms 70-80% of our investing activity today.”
John Carrafiell, senior managing partner at BentallGreenOak, said: “We have made a significant commitment to growing our presence in Europe over the last decade, enhancing and expanding our team’s operating capabilities to complement our asset management and investing platform.
”The team’s operating capabilities are underscored by having leased over 14m sqft in the past 3 years, and having developed or currently having under construction over 25m sqft across 7 countries within the same period.”
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