Pan-European real estate investment firm, Patrizia, is set to reveal the final close of its flagship TransEuropean value-add fund early next week.
The company is tipped to say it has reached the €750 mln hard cap for TransEuropean VII, making it the largest in the long-running fully discretionary fund series ever raised.
The update follows January 2020’s announcement when the company said it had gained €634 mln of equity commitments as it entered the final capital-raising stages, thereby already having easily surpassed a €500 mln target.
TransEuropean was first introduced in 1992 by London-based Rockspring Property Investment Managers, which Patrizia acquired in December 2017 - one of three takeovers it executed that year.
Since inception, the TransEuropeam series has generated a 12.6 % per annum Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and has invested in 13 European countries. Fund VII is significantly larger than Fund VI, which closed on €428.5 mln in 2016 and Fund V, which finished on around €350 mln in 2012.
Fund VII was launched in April 2018 with a €100 mln first close, and like its forerunners, pursues a cash-flow driven value-added strategy primarily across the office, industrial and residential sectors in continental Europe and the UK, adopting a more 'operator style' approach.
Paul Hampton is director of the TransEuropean series and is head of international fund management.
By January, the company had committed to 11 separate transactions across key European cities including Madrid, Paris, Barcelona, London and Berlin on behalf of the vehicle.
Investors in the new fund come from the UK, Middle East, Europe (including Finland), the US and Asia.
The update by the Augsburg-headquartered group will further underline its position as a powerhouse investment firm in European property, with multiple strategies across commercial and residential asset classes.
The fund is in line to become the 5th largest closed ended real estate vehicle to hold a final close in 2020.
Moreover, in June, Patrizia was ranked second only to The Blackstone Group in PropertyEU’s Top 100 Deals & Dealmakers ranking.
Throughout 2019, the listed company acquired €5.5 bn of real estate and made disposals totalling €3.5 bn. The 2019 total of €9 bn ranked it Number 2 in the world for European real estate transactions.
The company has since laid the foundation for further growth not just in real estate, but in alternatives by hiring former UBS Asset Management vice chairman and senior advisor, Thomas Wels, as co-CEO in April to add private equity, infrastructure and other asset classes to the business.
At UBS Asset Management, Wels had held several roles including head of global real estate, vice chairman and senior advisor until leaving the bank last October.
