Arminius Group, an independent transaction, asset and fund manager with a focus on sustainable commercial real estate, has announced the launch of a new sustainability fund, Arminius Impact Office Fund.
The new sustainability investment fund for institutional investors is structured as an open-end special alternative investment fund (offener Spezial-AIF) investing exclusively in prime German office properties. Arminius Impact Office will consider properties starting from a ticket size of €80 mln, with a total target portfolio size of up to €1 bn in gross asset value and a target portfolio-level debt ratio of 50%.
The Arminius Impact Office fund has been approved by German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) as an Article 9 Fund under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). As a sustainability fund, it aims to achieve significant reductions in CO2 emissions and energy consumption and to make an active and measurable contribution to environmental goals in accordance with Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (the “Taxonomy Regulation”).
Arminius Impact Office will specifically focus on office investment properties in Germany’s “Big Seven” cities as well as other economically vibrant urban areas including Darmstadt, Dresden, Erlangen, Karlsruhe and Regensburg. The fund aims at both professional and semi-professional investors. Hansainvest Hanseatische Investment-GmbH serves as the fund’s capital management company (KVG).
‘Our approach ensures that the Social and Governance components receive proper attention,’ added Christian Molter, managing partner at Arminius. ‘We consider this as important because the ‘S’ and ‘G’ are not just footnotes to the ‘E’ in ESG but an integral part of long-term property sustainability and thus of major importance to real estate investors. Any asset manager who considers only the ‘E’ in ESG runs the risk of managing energy-efficient properties with high future vacancy rates. Over the long term, office properties that aim to be ‘sustainable’ purely through energy savings will deliver inferior investment returns.’
