Italian listed property asset manager Prelios has launched its first German fund with a targeted investment volume of €280 mln.
The Prelios German Retail Property Fund Germany will pursue a core-plus strategy with a maximum loan-to-value of 40%, focusing on inner-city and out-of-town retail assets with a value of €20 mln in higher. Target locations will be Berlin and western German cities with a catchment area of at least 100,000 people.
The fund will be closed-end with a Luxembourg structure and is expected to start operationally at the start of 2017, following approval by the Luxembourg financial regulatory authorities.
The move comes shortly after Prelios opened an office in Frankfurt, headed by former Aberdeen Asset Management fund manager Nico Tates (pictured), and completed a strategic realignment to focus on services for third-party investors, including asset management.
'Prelios will pursue a core-plus investment strategy for Prelios German Retail Property Fund Germany,' Tates said. 'That means we will exclusively invest in underperforming properties with upward-potential. We plan to invest whenever we identify significant value-add potential through optimisation and repositioning.'
The company is also expanding its separate account investment management service to investors without their own platform in Germany.
Prelios currently has 29 funds in Italy with a total volume of €3.5 bn. In Germany it currently has some €2 bn of assets under management.
