London-based independent fund manager Acacia Point Capital has announced the opening of an office in Lisbon on Avenida da Liberdade following the acquisition of a 28-property residential portfolio at Lisbon's famous Costa da Caparica beach.
The company has hired C&W's head of capital markets Portugal, Luis Rocha Antunes as partner and managing director of Acacia Point Capital’s Portuguese business.
Antunes is an industry veteran with 14 years of experiance, and has advised on many of the country’s most significant real estate investment transactions totalling more than €4 bn, including offices, retail, logistics and development projects.
'I am delighted to be joining Acacia Point Capital to establish its Portuguese presence,' he commented. 'It has been my longstanding ambition to move into the investment and asset management space, where there is currently great opportunity in Portugal. Many international investors pursuing acquisitions in Portugal are seeking a reliable and experienced local operating partner.
'The long-awaited deleveraging within the Portuguese banking sector is now accelerating and insurance institutions and other corporates are progressively cleaning their balance sheets via the sale of non-core property. Therefore 2018-2019 will see an extensive wave of new investment opportunities that we can capitalise upon to suit core to opportunistic capital across all sectors: office, retail, logistics, hospitality and urban rehabilitation.'
Matthew Walker, managing director of Acacia Point Capital added: 'Our focus will be on delivering largely ‘off-market’ investment opportunities to our capital partners and driving strong financial performance through innovation, intense focus and local expertise to overcome the operational challenges encountered in Portugal. The Lisbon office market offers great opportunity due to the demand/supply imbalance. We see logistics development opportunities given the outdated nature of current stock. On the retail side, Portugal has some of the finest designed shopping centres in Europe and a burgeoning high street retail market in Lisbon and Porto. There are also several hotel investment opportunities as the banks progressively exit their NPL positions within the hospitality sector.'
