#MIPIM2016 UBS undertakes €7b of property deals in 2015

UBS Asset Management's Global Real Estate business (UBS) announced on day one of MIPIM in Cannes that it carried out €7.1 bn of transactions in 2015, compared to €6 bn in 2014.

UBS Real Estate carried out almost €1.3 bn of investments and €717 mln of direct real estate divestments in Europe last year. As a result, the Swiss investor features in 60th place in PropertyEU's Top 100 Investors ranking based on 2015 direct real estate transaction volume in Europe.

In December 2015 alone, UBS on a global level completed €559 mln of acquisitions and €72 mln of disposals, rounding off another successful year which saw UBS consolidate its position in the Italian and Spanish markets. As at 31 December 2015, UBS had €67.1 bn in assets under management across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific, up from EUR 53.2 bn in 2014.

The €7.1 bn of transactions undertaken last year comprised €5 bn of acquisitions (2014: €4.4 bn) and €2 bn of disposals (2014: €1.6 bn). The majority of investments were made by UBS in the US, where 47% of its assets are held, with 60 acquisitions totalling €2.8 bn undertaken there. Elsewhere, Japan was the second busiest country for investment, with €882mln deployed there, followed by the UK (€474 mln) and Switzerland (€337 mln).

In Europe, Italy and Iberia were a focus of business development and consolidation in 2015. In Italy, the team, which is based in Rome and Milan, was expanded to seven professionals, together bringing an average 16 years' experience to the newly dedicated platform, which provides on-the-ground expertise to Italian investors looking to diversify investments out of the territory, as well as those looking to deploy capital into the local market. The Iberian team also had an active year, with circa EUR 300 million invested in acquisitions as the platform continued its expansion in the market against the backdrop of the recovering Spanish economy.

According to Mark Gifford, GRE's Head of European Transactions Europe, excluding Switzerland: '2015 represented yet another solid and successful year for UBS as we continued to deploy our overarching research-based strategy across the business, utilising our uniquely global reach to deliver expertise and high quality returns to our clients.

'In Europe, while France and Germany have long been an important focus of ours, activity in the UK continued to grow, with our UBS Triton and UBS-CLOVA funds outperforming once again. Our operations in Spain and Italy were also consolidated as we took the opportunity to make acquisitions ahead of the wider recovery witnessed in these markets. We look forward to continuing this growth trajectory in the year ahead, both in existing and new European markets, maintaining our record as one of the largest global real estate investment managers.'

The US was also home to the greatest volume of disposals, totalling €836 mln, followed by Japan (€428 mln), Germany (€282 mln), France (€173 mln) and Italy (€137 mln).