GLOBAL - Private equity real estate house MGPA is to launch a €1bn German Spezialfondss investing in Asian commercial property.

The fund  - which is targeting the Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malay property markets, as well as others - is hoping to attract equity capital worth €500m from German-speaking institutional investors, with plans to borrow equal amounts from other sources.

Investments in commercial property will follow a core/core-plus strategy, with units in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan also considered.

Christian Schulte Eistrup, MGPA’s managing director of capital markets Europe, said: “With the planned fund structure, we want to offer German institutional investors the opportunity to invest in Asian real estate via the acknowledged vehicle of a German special fund and to make use of MGPA’s Asian expertise at the same time.”

MGPA will work with Selinus Capital on the structuring of the fund, with it also chosen as the distribution partner within German-speaking countries.

Speaking to IP Real Estate at the end of last month, CB Richard Ellis predicted a number of regulatory changes would encourage the growth of German Spezialfondss, with Iryna Pylypchuk, the company’s associate director of EMEA research and consulting, predicting that not only would the number of funds increase, but also the volume of assets.

Further research has also shown that Spezialfonds vehicles would shift away from their traditional focus on Austria, the Netherlands and Germany to include the growing Central and Eastern European markets.

MGPA, launched more than a decade ago, currently manages approximately $10bn in assets.

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