Invesco Real Estate was the largest cross-border buyer of European property during the first quarter of 2012 thanks to two large transactions on behalf of individual mandates.
Invesco Real Estate was the largest cross-border buyer of European property during the first quarter of 2012 thanks to two large transactions on behalf of individual mandates.
Based on preliminary figures for Q1, PropertyEU Research has estimated that Invesco Real Estate invested some EUR 800 mln in four major deals.
The investment company's largest deal during the period was the acquisition in March of two trophy office properties in Paris for some EUR 600 mln on behalf of an unnamed Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund. Both properties were sold by German fund manager KanAm's Grundinvest Fonds which are currently under liquidation.
Also in March, Invesco purchased a mixed-use complex in the City of London for EUR 144 mln. That investment was on behalf of a fund owned by Germany’s largest public pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK).
Due to the pure cross-border nature of these deals PropertyEU Research has ranked Invesco ahead of German listed company and fund manger Patrizia which was responsible for a EUR 1.4 bn residential property deal in Germany.
The Patrizia-led institutional consortium acquisition of the LBBW portfolio was the only EUR 1 bn-plus deal in Q1. Patrizia was operating in its domestic market but the transaction also had some cross-border characteristics as the consortium included Sweden's AP3 national pension fund and a Swiss pension fund.
The other top cross-border investors in Q1, based on the preliminary investment data were:
US-based JP Morgan (EUR 508 mln)
France's Auchan (EUR 500 mln)
Malaysia's Permodalan Nasional Berhad (EUR 423 mln)
Qatar Investment Authority (EUR 400 mln)
German fund managers Union Investment and Deka Immobilien (EUR 300 mln)
US private equity firm Blackstone (EUR 288 mln)
Swiss investor Corestate (EUR 283 mln)
Sweden's Niam (EUR 275 mln)
