SEB AM to return EUR 1.2b to investors by end-June

SEB Asset Management will return around EUR 1.2 bn to investors by the end of June as the unwinding of its EUR 6.3 bn ImmoInvest fund gets under way, SEB AM's CEO Barbara Knoflach told PropertyEU.

'We already have this capital as we have around 30% liquidity in ImmoInvest, or EUR 1.8 bn. There are still 132 properties in the fund in 18 countries and 64 cities, including Germany, the UK and France. We will now revise our strategic plan to decide how best to sell these properties, although we will not make this plan public,' she told PropertyEU.

The main trophy asset in the portfolio is Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, which comprises 19 buildings, including office and retail properties, and which comes with a book value of EUR 1.4 bn. SEB AM has so far struggled to find a buyer, largely because it is very difficult to get financing for such a big portfolio, analysts say. However, Knoflach signalled that it may not be the first portfolio to come under the hammer: 'We might not sell this straight away - we may decide to hang onto it for a while,' she said.

SEB AM opened its ImmoInvest fund for trading for just one day last Monday, following a two-year freeze on redemptions. It was forced to announce later the same day that it had taken the decision to liquidate the fund by April 2017, after too many investors sought to redeem their shares. The fund manager said at the time that 20% would be returned to investors in June.

Knoflach said that after June, the fund will make 'semi-annual' payouts to investors, determined by how many properties it sells. However she stressed that SEB wants to return the capital to its note holders as soon as it can.

Neither is the fund manager shying away from potential new funds. Knoflach told PropertyEU that SEB AM is looking to develop new retail products under the new AIFM regime.

'Obviously, we're very sad that ImmoInvest has come to an end as it is our oldest flagship fund for private investors - we've been running it for 23 years. But I don't expect its closure to affect our other funds such as our Asian funds,' Knoflach said.