Internos raises €135m in hotel fund's 2nd close

Internos Global Investors has raised new commitments of €135 mln in the second close of its Hotel Real Estate Fund.

The commitments come from three new German pension fund investors and additional commitments from the four founding investors, which nearly doubled their initially committed equity of €75 mln.

Internos has now closed the fund to new investors but expects the fund to reach total equity of circa €225-230 mln.

Since its launch in July 2012, the fund has acquired or committed to acquire seven hotels across Germany, Austria and the Netherlands for €200 mln. Based on further transactions in process, Internos expects the fund’s investments to reach €250-300 mln within the next six months and €400 mln of assets under management by late 2014 as Internos employs the additional equity.

In its first year of operation, the German Spezialfonds has paid distributions to its investors equivalent to an 8% dividend, exceeding the targets.

Jochen Schäfer-Suren, partner and managing director of Internos' hotel and leisure division, commented: 'The fund’s success is due to our focus on low risk, existing 3-4 star hotel assets with a good track record and long leases in major cities in the stable, core Eurozone countries as well as the low interest financing environment. Moreover, the fund’s 'club' nature of a small number of German investors with a coherent regulatory, legal, accounting and reporting framework has strengthened its appeal from the outset.'