AXA Real Estate raises record €7.3b in 2014

AXA Real Estate Investment Management raised a record €7.3 bn of capital in 2014 from new and existing clients on the back of continued strong institutional investor appetite for real estate.

The capital was raised for a range of investment strategies including core, value-add, development and debt. Of the total €7.3 bn raised, €3.6 bn went to equity strategies and €3.7 bn to debt strategies.

Pierre Vaquier, CEO of AXA Real Estate, said that the ‘significant’ levels of capital raised during 2014 testify to ‘the continued interest in real estate as an asset class amongst institutional investors searching for secure income streams and yield’.

The Paris-bsaed investment manager said it gained 35 new investor clients in 2014, comprising insurance companies, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds. Commitments were received from Europe, Asia, Canada, the US and the Middle East.

AXA Real Estate raised over €1.5 bn for its most recent pan-European real estate debt fund, Commercial Real Estate Senior 9(2) which will soon include a specific feeder fund for German regulated investors.

The company also secured a €250 mln commercial real estate debt investment mandate from a Dutch insurance company.

In another mandate, AXA RE was appointed investment manager for Kronborg Limited, a €485 mn commercial real estate debt vehicle formed by five Danish pension funds (comprising Sampension, TDC Pension, AP Pension, JØP and DIP).

AXA also launched a number of new vehicles to meet investor needs, including an Italian regulated fund with €350 mln of equity through AXA Real Estate Investment Managers SGR, an Italian affiliate of AXA Real Estate. In France, it raised €193 mln for AXA Selectiv’ Immo, a French real estate collective investment undertaking (OPCI), bringing the fund’s total AUM to €777 mln. It also raised €235 mln for a pan-European value-add strategy.

AXA Real Estate is the largest real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe with over €54 bn of assets under management at end-2014. It has over 160 third-party institutional clients spread across the world, in addition to managing funds for 10 AXA insurance companies.

Find out more about AXA Real Estate's investment and disposal transactions in PropertyEU's 2015 Top Investors ranking which will be published at MIPIM