Investment manager AEW Europe is looking to raise EUR 300 mln of fresh equity for a new fund targeting core properties across Europe. Christian Delaire, Chief Executive of AEW, told PropertyEU in an interview that the group is ‘pre-marketing’ the new vehicle among European, US and Asian institutions, with the first closing expected for the second quarter of 2010.
Investment manager AEW Europe is looking to raise EUR 300 mln of fresh equity for a new fund targeting core properties across Europe. Christian Delaire, Chief Executive of AEW, told PropertyEU in an interview that the group is ‘pre-marketing’ the new vehicle among European, US and Asian institutions, with the first closing expected for the second quarter of 2010.
'We have recently been very active in the opportunistic segment, but we will do more core investments from this year,' Delaire said, adding that the company is positive about investments in the UK, Germany, France, but on an opportunistic basis also Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and Central Europe. 'If you have money to deploy and you are willing to assume the risk, you can make very good deals in Spain right now, because the market is close to reaching its bottom,' Delaire said.
The company is also considering ‘re-entering’ Central and Eastern Europe, where it has not been active over the past two years. According to Delaire, 'opportunities are starting to show up in these markets as well' and the company will seek to take advantage of them through its PBW II vehicle.
In total, AEW has EUR 2.5 bn to invest in the European property market this year, through its Episo, PBW II and Euroffice investment vehicles.