AXA IM Alts, the alternative investments manager, has raised €1.9 bn of equity to accelerate investments into the Life Sciences sector.
The capital was raised over the last seven months, with commitments to a significantly oversubscribed fund raise from a range of clients from North America, Asia and Europe.
AXA IM Alts’ investments into the life science sector on behalf of clients are managed by its Real Assets platform.
Isabelle Scemama, global head of AXA IM Alts & CEO of AXA IMRA, commented: 'The success of this capital raise underlines our ability to present our clients with opportunities to invest at scale in our key conviction asset classes, such as life sciences, which offer sustainable and growing income returns over the long term.'
The capital raised will primarily be invested through Kadans Science Partner which AXA IM Alts completed the acquisition of in December last year. It will enable Kadans to execute new acquisition opportunities and continue to build out its existing development opportunities with a view to consolidating its market leading position in Europe.
Kadans is a fully integrated developer, owner and operator of European science parks and lab offices with 167,000 m2 of operating space across 22 assets in key research locations in the Netherlands, UK and Germany. It also has eight developments in the pipeline covering 120,000 m2.
Scemma added: 'Our investment into Kadans and the life sciences sector also dovetails with two of our broader investment themes. Firstly of putting capital to work in to opportunities which have strong ESG credentials and make a positive contribution to society and, secondly, of coupling long term investment capital with operational platforms and highly ambitious management teams wishing to operate without the constraint of short term investment horizons.'
