Barings raises more than €500m for pan-European core fund

Barings Real Estate Advisers has raised more than €500m for its pan-European core open-ended property fund.

The investment manager, which is owned by US insurer MassMutual, has been expanding in Europe and is one of a number of companies to have recently launched new pan-European core open-ended vehicles.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in the US, the Barings European Core Fund has raised €506m in capital.

The filing said more than half of the capital (€330m) came from third-party investors, meaning MassMutual has provided approximately €176m in cornerstone capital.

Barings, which did not comment, has been increasing its activity in Europe recently, investing on behalf of MassMutual and third-party investors.

Last week, it announced it made €1bn of transactions in Europe 2016 and increased its assets under management in the region to €4bn.

The European real estate business of Barings was born out of MassMutual’s acquisition of Protego Real Estate Investors in 2009, which it brought into its Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers subsisdiary. Last year, Cornerstone was rebranded along with a number of other MassMutual subsidaries.

The Barings fund is one of a number of new pan-European open-ended core funds to enter the market. AXA Investment Managers-Real Assets and TH Real Estate are among companies to have created new vehicles, bringing them into competiton with more established vehicles.

Last week, AXA IM-RE said it had raised €800m for its fund.