Europa Capital raises EUR 750m for investment programme

Europa Capital announced on Tuesday that it has received EUR 750mln of equity capital commitments for two new investment funds. The injection will give London-based Europa Capital in excess of EUR 2.5bn in spending power for its European property investment programme.

The firm said that more than two-thirds of the new equity commitments have come from North America with the rest coming from Europe and the rest of the world. A lot of the new capital has been committed by endowment funds, foundations and corporate and state pension institutions. Many of the investors have been involved in previous Europa Capital funds.

Europa Capital said it has invested in transactions totalling more than EUR 5bn worth of European property in 17 countries through four previous funds. The new Europa Fund III is Europa Capital's third pan-European fund investing in Western and Central Europe to which EUR 600mln has been committed, while Europa's Emerging Europe Fund invests in Eastern Europe with equity commitments of EUR 150mln. This fund has already made two investments, committing more than EUR 30mln to logistics properties in the Ukraine and Western Romania. (Click on the link below for details of the Ukrainian deal)

The company said that its investment strategy is based on sourcing investments which provide scope for active hands-on asset management and for transforming properties to higher value uses. In the current financial environment, Europa said, many owners were finding themselves in distress, but the underlying assets are sound and provided the opportunity for capital appreciation through corporate restructuring.

Noel Manns, a principal at Europa Capital, said: 'We are delighted by the high level of investor support we have received for both of our new funds. This capital will provide Europa Capital with a significant war-chest to capitalise upon the opportunities which we are seeing in these difficult and volatile credit conditions.'