German asset manager Omega Immobilien and dentist association pension fund VZN have launched an investment fund focusing on daycare centres in the Rhineland region.
The fund, dubbed Omega Kita-Welten Rheinland, is targeting an investment volume of around €55 mln and will have pension fund Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Nordrhein (VZN) as its sole investor.
The fund will focus on ongoing and recently completed daycare projects in the densely populated Rhineland region, where demand for daycare places is high. The Rhineland includes the Middle and Lower Rhine area and is one of Germany’s most densely populated regions with around 10 million inhabitants
‘With this fund, we are actively tackling the supply crisis in nursery care. By supporting public and non-profit providers, providing them with new nurseries and helping them run sustainably, we are also meeting our social and educational responsibilities in our home region’, said Uwe Zeidler, managing director of the VZN in Dusseldorf.
Martin Herkenrath, executive director of the Omega group, added: ‘This product allows us to tap into another market niche – as we did with our predecessor fund HMG Grundwerte Rheinland – where we have the necessary market transparency and access to products.’
There is already a shortfall of more than 70,000 daycare places in North Rhine-Westphalia due to rising birth rates and an increase in demand for places prompted by more mothers in work. Local councils are also continuing to push for more nursery places as a result of the legal right to a nursery spot, making for an interesting project pipeline, Omega said.
