Paris-based L’Etoile Properties signficantly ramped up its activities outside its home market last year and is now planning to open new offices, Didier Unglik, chairman and founder of the property services company, has told PropertyEU.
'L’Etoile Properties will continue its international expansion strategy with the opening of new offices in the coming years. But one of our key objectives is to launch our first own discretionary pan-European fund.'
The strategy of the new fund will focus on assets between core and core +, he added. 'This is a niche segment of reference for L’Etoile Properties.'
In 2016 L’Etoile Properties increased its assets under management in Germany by €750 mln and the company has a pipeline of a further €350 mln in exclusivity for the first quarter of 2017. Including additional transactions in France and the Netherlands, the firm currently manages assets under management in excess of €5 bn on group level.
In the fourth quarter of 2016 the investment manager has signed and closed transactions in Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin.
Last week, L’Etoile Properties announced it had advised Paris-based investor Amundi Real Estate on the acquisition of the Hamburg HQ of insurer Allianz for some €100 mln. Last year, the company structured and managed the acquisition of the new 42,000 m2 HQ of Novartis France in Rueil-Malmaison (Paris) on behalf of Korean Investment & Securities off-plan from BNP Paribas Real Estate.
That deal marked the second acquisition in 2016 on behalf of Korean investors. The company also advised on the acquisition of the 75,000 m2 complex called De Rotterdam in the Netherlands made on behalf of a joint venture structured with Amundi, KFCC and Meritz Securities.
According to Unglik, the company advised on acquisitions valued more than €1 bn on behalf of its clients last year in France as well as in Germany and the Netherlands. 'These deals confirm the pertinence of the international strategy which we launched a few years ago.
New offices in Seoul, Madrid and London
In addition to Korean investors, L’Etoile Properties has also been acting on behalf of Spanish, Nordic, French and Middle Eastern investors in recent years. The company is now looking to open local offices in Seoul, Madrid and London with a view to attracting foreign capital to the countries in which it is active, Unglik said.
L'Etoile Properties offers a global service approach (acquisition, asset and property management) in each of the three countries in which it is active, he added. 'Our global service approach is provided through the respective local teams which bring their knowhow as well as their knowledge of the local market and practice to the table.'
Another acquisition that L'Etoile recently finalised on behalf of Amundi was the Tom Tom HQ in Amsterdam. More recently, it acquired an office portfolio located in South Germany on behalf of
French investor Perial.
L’Etoile Properties has also recently won several asset management and property management contracts in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
