Savills buys SEB Asset Management

International property services and investment firm Savills is acquiring German real estate investment manager SEB Asset Management.

Savills has signed an agreement with Nordic banking group SEB to buy SEB AM, including its main subsidiary SEB Investment, for up to €21.5 mln in cash.

Barbara Knoflach, head of SEB AM, has been named the incoming global head of investment management at BNP Paribas Real Estate. She will take office by summer 2015.

SEB Asset Management has 148 employees and manages real estate assets of about €10 bn globally on behalf of investors, with a particular emphasis on Europe and Asia. Following the transaction, the company will be combined with Savills' investment management business, Cordea Savills, which is being rebranded as Savills Investment Management.

Approximately 40% of SEB AM’s AUM, €4 bn, represents institutional funds with the remainder, €6 bn, being assets of a number of German Open Ended funds (GOEF) which are in the process of formal liquidation in accordance with the regulatory process governed by BaFin (the German Regulatory body).

Justin O’Connor, CEO of Cordea Savills, commented: 'The proposed acquisition of SEB Asset Management complements our strong organic growth and provides an opportunity to create a leading investment manager in Europe and Asia. SEB Asset Management will add to our critical mass and enhance our ability to offer investment opportunities to clients globally.'

'I am convinced that Cordea Savills, as an experienced property investment manager with a global reach, is a good home for our German-based real estate investment business, and that they will prudently continue the wind down and liquidation of the German open ended real estate mutual funds,' said Fredrik Boheman, head of SEB Germany and chairman of SEB Asset Management.

SEB AM was a significant seller of real estate in 2014, due to the wind-down of three of its funds that were victims of the liquidity crunch which hit the German open-ended real estate fund industry during the financial crisis. PropertyEU's Top 100 Investors, Dealmakers and Investment Locations publication, published at MIPIM, recorded a total transaction volume for SEB of €2 bn, including the sale of an 11-asset office portfolio to US investor NorthStar for €1.1 bn in December 2014. As a result of this and other big disposals, SEB took 36th place in our Top Investors ranking by transaction volume in 2014.

More sales are to come. Both its SEB ImmoInvest and SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return funds have to be liquidated in 2017. SEB ImmoImvest currently ranks among the top 10 of GOEFs in terms of total assets value under management with €3.9 bn.

Cordea Savills was in 29th place in the dealmakers' ranking, having completed €2.6 bn of transactions in Europe last year. It had total assets under management in Europe of €6.2 bn at end-2014. For more information, see PropertyEU's Top Investors App

Comment
Fredrik Boheman, head of SEB Germany and chairman of SEB Asset Management, commented: 'SEB Asset Management has in recent years undergone a fundamental re-positioning in response to market developments. Cordea Savills is an experienced property investment manager with a global reach. They will continue the wind-down and liquidation of the open-ended real estate mutual funds, amongst them SEB ImmoInvest.'

The completion of the sale is conditional upon regulatory approvals and is currently expected to close around mid-2015.