Credit Suisse is liquidating its EUR 6bn CS Euroreal property fund after too many investors opted to redeem their shares when it re-opened for one day of trading on Monday following a two-year freeze.

Credit Suisse is liquidating its EUR 6bn CS Euroreal property fund after too many investors opted to redeem their shares when it re-opened for one day of trading on Monday following a two-year freeze.

'We had one day to re-open and see what investors want and we let them take the vote,' a spokesperson told PropertyEU. 'We still have faith in the portfolio and investors will receive their first payment by the year-end.'

The spokesperson said that the payment amount still has to be set, although the open-ended fund had EUR 1.6bn liquidity when it re-opened this morning.
Credit Suisse now has until 30 April 2017 to wind down the fund.

Last year, the fund generated a return of just 0.73%, according to Credit Suisse. However, on average, the fund has generated an annual return of 3% in the past five years.

Credit Suisse has already sold 15 properties in the fund - with a combined value of EUR 1.4bn - over the past two years, taking the liquidity of the fund to 32%. Around 45% of the fund is invested in Germany with an additional 12.8% in the UK, 11.7% in Holland, 10.1% in France, 7.5% in Italy, 4.8% in Spain, 3.3% in Sweden and 4.8% in other markets. Around 60% of the fund is invested in offices, with an additional 30% in retail, 5% in parking and 3.8% in logistics.

Credit Suisse is not the first fund manager this month to announce that it will liquidate a German open-ended fund. Earlier this month, SEB Asset Management announced that it would liquidate its EUR6.3 bn ImmoInvest fund after too many investors opted to redeem their shares when it re-opened for one day of trading following a two-year freeze.

Another six German open-ended property funds are still frozen - with combined assets of around EUR 1.8bn under management - including SEB's EUR 284 mln Global Property fund and UBS's EUR 344 mln 3 Sector Real Estate fund. UBS has to decide by 6 October whether to re-open or dissolve the fund. SEB Asset Management has until December to reach a decision.

Almost 20% of Germany’s open-ended funds - with combined AUM of EUR 15.95 bn - are in the process of being liquidated. These include KanAm's grundinvest fund, which now has EUR 3.9bn of AUM following a spate of sales, and SEB's ImmoInvest fund. In total, Germany’s open-ended funds held EUR 85.21 bn of AUM at end-March 2012, according to the BVI, which represents the German mutual fund and asset management industry.