Mercer Alternatives has committed A$100m (€62m) for a cornerstone position in the close-ended Dexus Real Estate Partnership 1 (DREP1) vehicle.
The investment from Mercer Alternatives has lifted DREP1’s total equity capital commitments to around A$265m.
The seven-year DREP1 fund has three other investors, including Dexus, which invested A$100m. Senior Dexus executives additionally invested in a personal capacity.
In November, Dexus seeded the new fund with three assets that will be worth about A$245m in gross value when realised. These include a Melbourne office development, an industrial project in Sydney and a construction loan.
Padraig Brown, head of Pacific real estate at Mercer, told IPE Real Assets: “We saw pretty good opportunities post-COVID dislocation to acquire assets across the capital stacks, sectors, and risk categories.
“We like this fund because nearly 50% of its investments had already been identified.”
Brown added that Mercer Alternatives looked for managers with the ability to play across different strategies and to capture dislocations and the post-COVID recovery.
Mercer Alternatives is an existing investor in Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (DWPF), a fund that manages a diversified portfolio of A$16bn.
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