Macquarie, the Australian banking and investment group, has launched a new push into the European property sector by acquiring GLL Real Estate Partners, a Munich-based fund manager with €7 bn of assets under management.
Maintaining its current branding GLL will become the new real estate equity investment platform for Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), Macquarie's infrastructure and real assets arm, in Europe and the Americas.
While MIRA has been increasing its activities in European real estate in recent years, the scope of the GLL takeover recalls Macquarie's global logistics joint venture with Goodman in the early 2000s.
GLL’s founding partners, Rainer Göebel and Gerd Kremer, as well as managing director Dana Gibson will continue to lead the business and ensure continuity and stability for staff, clients and business partners.
GLL has a team of over 130 experienced real estate professionals based in Europe, the Americas and South Korea. Its portfolio consists of 100 property investments and development projects across the office, retail, and industrial real estate sector, with 44% of the portfolio located in Europe, 51% in the US and 5% in Latin America. Following the transaction, MIRA and GLL will together manage around €10.6 bn of real estate assets globally on behalf of investors.
The financial terms of the transaction remain confidential.
'This partnership is a significant step in MIRA’s growth and diversification across the real assets sector, and will result in a material expansion of our global real estate footprint,' commented Mira's global head Martin Stanley.
GLL's co-founder Rainer Göebel, added: 'We have spent considerable time confirming the compatibility of GLL and MIRA, and I am convinced that bringing these two entities together, will result in the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.'
The transaction is subject to regulatory and merger approvals, expected in the second quarter of 2018.
MIRA has assets under management of more than €94 bn invested in 137 portfolio businesses, 300 properties and 4.5 million hectares of farmland.
