Benson Elliot Capital Management, the UK-based private equity real estate fund manager, has raised over €800 mln for its latest pan-European value-add / opportunistic fund.
Benson Elliot Real Estate Partners V was launched in 2018 and was ‘substantially raised in six months’, it has said in a statement.
No placement agent was used as the firm went about raising the fund with a repeat investor rate of over 95% from the prior fund.
In total, a group of 40 institutional investors committed, including university endowments, insurance companies, pension plans, sovereign wealth funds and family offices. Approximately 40% of the capital was sourced from the US, 35% from Europe, with the balance from the Middle East and Asia.
BEREP V will continue the same value-add / opportunistic investment approach as predecessor funds, which have delivered a 14% net internal rate of return. The fund will target institutional quality assets, with a primary geographic focus on the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and a principal sectoral focus on offices, retail, residential and hotels.
Laura Coleman, principal and head of investor relations at Benson Elliot, said, ‘Most gratifying is the strong support from our existing investors.’
Marc Mogull, executive chairman and CIO, said as with previous funds, the firm ‘consciously limited the size’ of BEREP V to avoid the deployment-driven pressures that can confront managers of larger funds.
Benson Elliot’s predecessor fund, BEREP IV, had a final closing of €634 mln in June 2016. It is fully committed to 18 transactions, having returned around 50% of invested capital. To date BEREP IV has delivered realised returns of 58% IRR and a 1.9x multiple.
The fundraise could end up being one of the largest to be announced in 2019. Last year, only six firms raised more equity for a European closed ended real estate fund. Those were Aermont Capital, JP Morgan, CBRE Global Investors, GLP/Gazeley, NREP, and Laxfield Capital.
