Cornerstone adds Pamera and €1b of German assets to platform

Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers has expanded its global platform and added €1 bn of German real estate to its €1.5 bn European business through the acquisition of Pamera Asset Management.

Cornerstone - a subsidiary of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) - is a real estate investment manager with more than $44 bn (€32 bn) of assets under management globally. Of this, $2 bn (€1.5 bn) is in the UK, Germany as well as the Nordic region. The focus is on retail, office and industrial properties in Europe, but the company said it is increasingly looking at alternative sectors.

Pamera was established by Christoph Wittkop, Gunther Deutsch, Lars Borghaus and Maximilian Isenberg in 2010, and has a 38-member team in a network of offices in the German cities of Frankfurt, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Munich. The company manages property assets in Germany, focused primarily on the office and retail sectors, and will continue to work with its existing client base of German and international private equity investors, loan servicers and institutional investors operating in the value add and opportunistic segments of the market.

This transaction is consistent with Cornerstone’s stated strategy to expand its real estate platform throughout Europe. Christoph Wittkop and Gunther Deutsch will join Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers’ European board, Cornerstone said.

Charles Weeks, CEO of Cornerstone Europe: 'We intend to grow Cornerstone’s investment management platform in Europe and the acquisition of Pamera complements our existing operations in the UK, Nordics and Netherlands.'