French investment manager Primonial REIM has committed €40 mln to Catella’s maiden pan-European residential fund, marking the first investment in the vehicle from outside Germany, the Berlin-based company said on Thursday.
Catella Residential Investment Management’s CER III Fund held its first close in July and is targeting at least €1 bn in investments across European residential real estate markets.
The fund launched with €50 mln in seed capital from a German pension plan, which also made a top-up of €20 mln.
Catella said it expected to announce other international participants in the fund soon, based on strong investor demand for residential assets.
Michael Fink, managing director of CRIM, said: ‘The CER III fund’s Luxembourg-based structure provides international investors with easy access to Catella’s residential investment platform, the largest and most geographically diverse across European markets.
‘We anticipate that we will be able to announce further new investors alongside Primonial REIM in the near future. There is extremely strong investor demand for the fast-growing and defensive “living sector” of real estate assets in a world of very low, or negative, investment yields, particularly in fixed-income products.’
Casper van Grieken, head of equity placement at CBRE Netherlands, which acted as placement agent for the CER III Fund, added: ‘To have achieved a first fund raise in such a short space of time is testament to the quality and track record of the Catella platform. With a compelling pipeline and strong ability to source attractive investments across Europe, this strength of offering has not been seen in the market for some time.’
Primonial REIM is one of Europe’s leading third-party real estate portfolio management companies for institutional and private investors, with around €19 bn in total assets under management.
