Investment manager Realogis Real Estate plans to raise €75 mln at the first closing of a new open-ended real estate special fund focusing on core-plus logistics investments.

Investment manager Realogis Real Estate plans to raise €75 mln at the first closing of a new open-ended real estate special fund focusing on core-plus logistics investments.

The vehicle, called Realogis Real Estate Logistics Fund Germany, is aimed at institutional investors and is targeting a total size of €250 mln.

The fund will invest in prime logistics assets with long-term leases and good locations, properties with expiring leases and good alternative uses as well as older properties at top locations with high value-added potential. It will also be able to acquire properties very early on in the project development phase, using forward purchase and forward-funding agreements.

'Ever since joining the company, large fund houses, institutional investors and end-investors have been approaching us in their search for indirect investment opportunities. This interest and our know-how induced us to start the Realogis Real Estate Logistics Fund – Germany ourselves,' commented Bodo Hollung, managing director of Realogis Real Estate.

He added: 'We have a substantial pipeline of available properties for which we are already in purchase negotiations, and we aim to acquire around €75 mln of equity from institutional investors for the first closing at the end of 2014.'

The fund will tap into institutional investors' appetite for higher yields while taking advantage of low vacancies and interesting trends in the logistics industry as a whole, the company said. Realogis Real Estate Logistics Fund Germany aims to generate a yield of more than 7% per year. Realogis Real Estate is responsible for the portfolio management, asset management and gaining of equity commitments.

Realogis Real Estate is the only fund initiator in the German-speaking countries with a focus on logistics real estate which is independent of banks and own project developments.