Nordic fund manager Genesta has secured €152 mln of commitments in the first close for a second fund seeking to build up a diversified real estate portfolio focused on the region's four capital cities.

Nordic fund manager Genesta has secured €152 mln of commitments in the first close for a second fund seeking to build up a diversified real estate portfolio focused on the region's four capital cities.

Genesta, the first Nordic-focused real estate fund manager to be accepted as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM), secured the equity commitments on behalf of Nordic Real Estate Fund II from four institutional investors.

Nordic Real Estate Fund II will acquire office, retail and logistics property investments predominantly in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Oslo. The fund will pursue value-add investments and target a net return to investors of 13-14%.

Genesta said it hopes to raise additional capital during June and end up with €350-400 mln in equity commitments. This would mean Nordic Real Estate Fund II would be twice the size of its predecessor.

Allan Strand Olesen, CIO, who joined Genesta in 2012 and is the firm's chief investment officer, will manage the new fund.

AIFM certification is a legal requirement for managers of non-listed real estate funds. As an AIFM in the real estate sector, Genesta is authorised to raise equity in all EU countries and manage non-listed real estate funds.

The new fund builds on Genesta’s first fund, Genesta Nordic Baltic Real Estate, a closed-ended, €176 mln, 2007-vintage fund. GNBRE outperformed the IPD Sweden Annual Property Index by 3.1 percentage points and recorded a total return of 10.8% in 2014.

The fund is ranked in the upper quartile in the IPD benchmark comparison over 1-year and 3-year measurement periods and in the top-10 over a 5-year period.