Bouwfonds Investment Management has confirmed a management buyout and the sale of more than €4bn of real estate and infrastructure assets, as its parent Rabobank looks to exit fund management.
Bouwfonds IM said its real assets porfolio had been reduced from €6.3bn to €2.1bn as the result of a series of transactions.
It also confirmed that the management team had bought some of Bouwfonds IM’s business units, funded by family-office investor Commonwealth Investments.
It was reported in January that the majority of Bouwfonds IM had been sold to Commonwealth Investments, which manages investments on behalf of the Dreesmann family.
Today, Bouwfonds said confirmed it sold more than €4bn of assets and transferred to Commonwealth Investments activities relating to its car parking, residential and German communication infrastructure businesses.
“We are convinced that through this management buyout, we can serve the interests of our customers, employees and other stakeholders in the best possible manner,” said Jaap Gillis, CEO of Bouwfonds IM.
”The team that will be leading the new company has been responsible for these funds for a number of years and is in an excellent position to successfully continue these activities.”
The disposal of more than €4bn of assets was achieved through a series of transactions, including the recapitalisation of a Dutch retail property fund, the sale of infrastructure assets to fund manager EQT and Dutch company TenneT, and the sale of its agriculture business unit.
In November 2017, it was announed that three Dutch institutional investors and CBRE Global Investors’ Dutch Retail Fund had recapitalised two property funds run in joint venture with IEF Capital.
That month Bouwfonds IM said it had sold a coaxial and fibre infrastructure company and an internet service provider held by one of its infrastructure funds to an EQT fund. Separately, Bouwfonds IM transferred its indirect interests in telecommunication towers to TenneT.
