Internos to target €750m of acquisitions in 2015

Internos is targeting an acquisition volume of €750 mln in 2015 after seeing disposals dominate in 2014.

The European investment manager invested €330 mln for five funds and sold €900 mln of assets in 2014. In total, Internos now has €3.9 bn in assets under management.

This year Internos will invest predominantly in income-producing assets in the hotel, German retail and German care home sectors, the company said. It will also expand investment activity into the UK and Dutch institutional residential property sectors and the mainstream European commercial markets. In addition, it will continue to dispose of assets from funds where it has a mandate to recover value on behalf of investors.

Internos CEO Andrew Thornton commented: 'A combination of strong capital flows into Europe and a focus on executing asset management initiatives enabled us to deliver the strategies agreed with our investors in 2014. We also activated several mandates investing in opportunities in specific sectors of the German market and southern Europe.

'In 2015, we will continue to invest on behalf of our active funds, exploiting prevailing low interest rates to enhance income returns, while we explore opportunities for institutional investors in those European markets where we have strong conviction.'

Internos is targeting a further €225 mln of investments for Hotel Fund 1 and its Hotel value-add mandate, which will bring hotel assets to €700 mln and add to the 12 hotels acquired since 2012.

In the German care homes sector, it has raised €80 mln of equity for Internos Care Invest Fund 1 and currently has €50 mln of assets under offer. Also in Germany, Internos will pursue further opportunities on behalf of SH-Immo, a fund management mandate with a German Pensionskasse, which acquired two office assets in Cologne, and it will invest a further €100 mln in German retail parks for Internos Novapierre Allemagne, its joint venture with Paref Gestion.

During 2014, Internos raised debt financing for assets with a value of over €200 mln at fixed interest rates typically below 2%. In addition Internos re-financed or prolonged existing debt with a value of €500 mln.

In parallel with its new acquisitions in 2014, Internos continued to execute its turnaround strategy for funds where it has a mandate to recover value for investors through a combination of intensive asset management and timely disposals. The majority of disposals were in Germany and the Netherlands, where funds managed by Internos sold some €560 mln comprising mainly light-industrial and retail park assets.

In the UK, Internos, in its role as investment manager to the Local Shopping REIT, sold a sub-portfolio of high street retail and residential assets for £80 mln (€104 mln) to Varde. In southern Europe, Internos sold two shopping centres in Spain for €90 mln to KKR and a further shopping centre in Italy for €48 mln to Benson Elliot.

In France, the Internos Paris team sold over €110 mln of assets, the majority central Paris and regional office assets, but also including some logistics assets from the Internos Spezialfonds series, which were acquired from Commerzreal in 2013.