Real estate investor Zaga Capital has achieved a first close of its flagship ZAGA German Real Asset Opportunities II Fund SCA SICAV RAIF, with equity commitments of approximately €210m including co-investments.
With Zaga’s founders and anchor investor Attegia Holding having already committed and deployed substantial equity to date, the latest fundraise takes the total amount of equity raised by Zaga, to scale its German residential strategy, to approximately €500m.
The fund has been seeded by a €1.4bn, 14,000-unit portfolio of residential-for-rent properties, managed by Zaga’s portfolio company Net Zero Properties, providing investors with day-one income. Located primarily across Western and Northern Germany, the majority of the portfolio has been aggregated in off-market deals over the last 24 months, at more than a 40% discount to peak market values.
Zaga stated that it has identified an active pipeline of approximately €3bn of “complementary, mispriced assets”, of which more than €400m is already secured or in due diligence, enabling swift capital deployment for new investors.
Zaga also owns a vertically-integrated German operating platform employing approximately 40 investment, technical, asset management and finance professionals.
Marco Zarges, co-owner and founding partner of Zaga Capital Partners, said: “This first closing, achieved against one of the most challenging fundraising environments in recent memory, marks an important milestone for our platform. Our strategy is built around taking advantage of the structural megatrends shaping German real estate, with German residential-for-rent, a highly defensive and structurally undersupplied market with compelling entry pricing, the first step in this strategy.”
Antonio Galea, co-owner and founding Partner of Zaga Capital Partners, added: “The combination of a de-risked and strongly performing seed portfolio, a secured pipeline and an active manage-to-green strategy provide a differentiated platform to deliver resilient and attractive returns. Securing further institutional backing at what we believe is one of the most compelling points in the current cycle reinforces both the strength of our operating model and our ability to continue scaling the portfolio in a disciplined manner.”
To read the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.
