Patrizia Immobilien has acquired Rockspring Property Investment Managers, increasing the German company’s assets under management (AUM) to approximately €40bn.
The takeover comes a month after announcing it had acquired Triuva, boosting its AUM from €21bn to more than €30bn.
Patrizia has undertaken a number of corporate acquisitions over the past six years, transforming itself from a German residential specialist to a diversified, pan-European institutional investment manager.
The company said today that the latest acquisition “further strengthens Patrizia’s global investor base and expands the group’s network of pan-European offices, resources and capabilities”.
Rockspring was founded in 1984, the same year as Patrizia, by non-executive chairman Richard Plummer.
It has 120 institutional clients from 20 countries, and manages a number of funds, including Rockspring TransEuropean, Rockspring PanEuropean and Rockspring Hanover – all of which will remain unaffected and will continue in their current form post-merger.
It has a team of 110 that invests primarily in retail, office and industrial sectors from seven offices in Europe.
Robert Gilchrist, Rockspring’s chief executive, said: “Earlier this year, a number of factors combined to make us realise it was the right time to start considering our future and prepare Rockspring for the next phase of its growth, a process which we are very pleased to say has resulted in our joining forces with Patrizia.
“The company is a strong fit, both culturally and strategically for Rockspring’s professionals; we share a similar vision, personality and strong entrepreneurial energy that will continue to differentiate us from competitors.
“Our joint client base will benefit from an expanded range of fund and investment opportunities in Europe, given the strength, range and diversity of skills within the combined businesses and its truly pan-European network of locally based real estate experts.
“Importantly, this will also ensure an uninterrupted continuation of our current business, managed by the same key people within the Rockspring team.”
Wolfgang Egger, founder and chief executive of Patrizia, said: “Rockspring has an outstanding track record and reputation for European property fund management and client services and is a perfect fit for Patrizia in terms of shared vision and culture and its focus on real estate business.
As reported in the latest edition of IPE Real Assets, Patrizia has had ambitions to become a large pan-European real estate fund manager with a global capital base.
“This acquisition represents an important milestone for Patrizia in achieving our vision to become a global provider of European real estate assets for our clients.”
The takeover will provide Patrizia access to global investors.
Close to one-third (31%) of its investors are from the UK, 27% from Asia-Pacific region, 5% from North America and the remaining 37% from continental Europe. The majority of Patrizia’s clients are from Germany.
Around 80% of Rockspring’s investors are pension funds, while it also counts insurance companies and other institutional investors amongst its clients.
Egger said Patrizia had been preparing for the recent acquisitions of Rockspring, Triuva and fund-of-funds business Sparinvest “in a careful and strategic way for several months now”.
He said: “It represents a unique strategic opportunity to be able to bring the three businesses into Patrizia in one comprehensive integration process.”
Patrizia was placed 47th in IPE Real Assets’ recent Top 100 Real Estate Investment Managers ranking. The acquisitions of Triuva and Rockspring, theoretically take it above Aviva Investors at number 27.
• A previous version of this story misstated that Triuva had undertaken a number of corporate acquisitions over the past six years.
