A fund managed by turnaround specialist ActivumSG Capital Management has announced the acquisition of Fairvesta Group, a fund platform for retail investors with €800 mln of managed assets.
The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
ActivumSG Fund V has acquired the business headquartered in Tübingen, south west Germany, from the Knoll family, who founded the company in 2002.
Fairvesta manages 14 real estate funds on behalf of about 18,000 individual investors from across Europe. The funds’ portfolios comprise a total of around 150 properties - mainly office and retail buildings in smaller German towns and cities.
Saul Goldstein, ASG's founder and managing partner, said: 'The acquisition of Fairvesta highlights how we find new ways of accessing attractive investment opportunities. Corporate acquisitions are a feature of ASG funds, giving our investors exposure to sectors in great demand while avoiding the asset price inflation of competitive direct investment markets.'
ASG’s predecessor funds have made three other corporate investments in Germany, creating Instone Real Estate through the merger of Formart and GRK. The same fund also purchased one of the largest retirement home developers in Germany, WI Immo.
Fairvesta provides individual investors with access to properties that through hands-on asset management can be repositioned for the next buyers when they are brought back to market. This 'value add' approach is similar in many ways to the strategies of ASG funds, which are structured for institutional investors, according to ActivumSG.
'We want to take fairvesta to the next level through this acquisition,' said Richard Wartenberg, head of Real Estate at ActivumSG Advisory. 'We bring an institutional approach and asset management expertise from handling larger and more complex transactions. This will lift fund performance and allow fairvesta to offer attractive investment products in the German real estate market to its customers, ensuring the company continues on its growth path.'
Fairvesta will continue to operate with its own management team following its acquisition by ActivumSG Fund V.
The purchase of fairvesta is the 11th investment by ActivumSG Fund V. The fund’s other investments include mezzanine financing for various developments in Berlin as well as residential development and land purchases in Spain.
