Denmark's Sparinvest raises its largest fund ever

The fundraising is the largest ever accomplished by Sparinvest, the company said in a statement.

'While SPF IV is off to a strong start and our pipeline is deep, we will maintain our disciplined approach as these are times where patience and risk awareness are likely to pay off,' commented Bo W. Jensen, managing partner of SPI.

The vehicle will pursue a small and mid-market strategy, investing with local operating partners through a combination of joint ventures, clubs, co-investments and commingled funds. Strategies will mainly be repositioning of existing properties and secondly developments of new buildings.

'Sparinvest Property Investors (SPI) has delivered very strong results in their previous funds and we believe SPI is able to continue the good performance. Therefore it makes good sense for us to continue our collaboration and outsource our non-domestic property investments to a dedicated specialist like SPI,' commented Nikolaj Stampe, head of real estate at PKA, anchor investor in SPF IV.

Helle Ærendahl Heldbo, portfolio manager in Lærernes Pension, added: 'We are very pleased to re-up with SPI, as international real estate is an important part of our overall real estate strategy. Through SPF IV, we get exposure to some of the best local real estate managers, which would be difficult for us to achieve on our own.'

SPF IV is expected to deliver a 11% net internal rate of return to its investors with moderate use of leverage. Approximately two thirds of the properties are expected to be located in mature markets. SPF IV has already teamed up with four distinct partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia, including the development of for-sale semi-detached houses in Dublin.

SPI is a Copenhagen-based real estate management firm founded in 2005. It manages €1.5 bn in gross commitments across its four global real estate funds.