AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets raised a record €8 bn of capital during 2016, the most it has ever raised in a single year.
The global investment manager said total capital commitments came from an increasingly diverse range of players, including small, medium, and large third-party institutional investors, retail investors and family offices around the world, as well as from AXA Insurance Companies.
AXA IMRA also announced that it raised €800 mln for its AXA CoRE Europe Fund, the pan-European open ended real estate fund which it launched last year.
'We have had a record year in terms of capital raised, underlining the continued appeal of the real assets sector and the attractiveness of the opportunities we have brought to our clients, which cover the entire Real Assets spectrum via both debt and equity,' commented Isabelle Scemama (pictured), CEO of AXA IMRA. 'We also continued to expand and diversify our client base, with a growing number of small and mid-size institutions, a trend that accelerated with the launch of the AXA CoRE Europe fund, which gives them access to a diversified range of high quality pan-European investments.'
Geographically, the capital derived from Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia and was channelled on a 50/50 basis into debt and equity investments, according to the firm.
Other highlights in 2016 included the launch of AXA IMRA’s first co-mingled infrastructure debt fund, which raised €900 mln, continuing the success of its €14 bn real assets debt platform which also launched its 10th real estate senior debt fund, having raised €1.4 bn.
AXA's fourth generation development fund, Development Venture IV, went to final close raising over €600 mln from 17 global investors across nine countries, providing it with an investment capacity of up to €2 bn.
Also of note was the final closing of its Pan-European Value-Added Venture, which raised a total of €445 mln.
'During 2016 and moving into 2017, we made the conscious decision to cap the amount of capital we raised for a number of our funds, as we are cognisant of where the market cycles are in all our various territories and the importance of investing cautiously using our 360o approach to choose the right product and the right time,' concluded Scemama.
