Paris-based asset manager La Française is creating a new platform dedicated to managing French value added and core/core plus mandates for institutional investors.
Paris-based asset manager La Française is creating a new platform dedicated to managing French value added and core/core plus mandates for institutional investors.
The company has hired Patrice Genre, founder and former managing director of DTZ Asset Management, to lead the new unit, dubbed La Française Real Estate Partners.
The new entity will be 65% held by La Française Real Estate Managers and 35% held by its management.
Marc Bertrand, managing director of La Française Real Estate Managers told PropertyEU earlier this year that the expansion of its separate mandate business with international clients would be the first priority in the near future. 'We hope to secure one new mandate per quarter, which should translate into investments of some €200 mln next year,' Bertrand said.
Commenting on the launch of the platform, he added: 'We clearly needed a separate system and organisation to meet the demands of institutional clients for core /core plus or value added strategies. Targeting riskier assets, in terms of geographic location and rental risk means we can target returns of between 10 and 15%. These are very attractive but need precision in execution, in-depth customisation, tailored reporting and monitoring.'
Patrice Genre, president of La Française Real Estate Partners, said: 'Working with La Française seemed to be an obvious step. A group like La Française is an ideal partner. Its position at the intersection between the worlds of finance and real estate and the abundance and depth of its services make it a preferred asset manager for large investors.'
La Française has gone to great lengths to build a European asset management platform over the past year. Just four months after forming a strategic partnership with UK-based Forum Partners, the company signed an over-the-counter agreement to acquire Cushman & Wakefield Investors (CWI), the investment management business of Cushman & Wakefield earlier this year.
‘Developing an asset management business from scratch is not easy. From the very beginning, we set ourselves the goal to acquire a boutique fund management company if we would come across one with good management and good coverage of the markets we were targeting. We thought it would be more efficient and would help us save time and money,’ Bertrand told PropertyEU.
The company aims to achieve two separate account deals in 2014, he noted.