Stam Europe to close equity raising for new fund by summer

Private real estate investment manager Stam Europe expects the first close of equity-raising for its latest fund to take place before the summer. Stam chairman Antoine de Broglie told PropertyEU that about half of the equity for the EUR 400 mln vehicle is coming from institutional investors in Europe and the rest from the US.

He said Stam Europe had invested about EUR 600 mln in the last 18 months but is not firmly in fund-raising mode. 'We have been quite active but most of that was done just post-Lehman to the summer of last year. We have not done anything this winter. The market is extremely dry.'

'We think that the name of the game is to accumulate dry powder rather than take risk today,' he continued. 'It is very difficult to take risk today. You just can’t underwrite a future rent. Nobody knows where the rents are going. Everybody knows they are falling but nobody knows exactly where they are and where they will be in 18 months - 2 years.'

The latest fund follows on from the EUR 700 mln Stam REI III 'value-added' investment fund, that was raised with 14 investors (British, Irish and Dutch pension funds). Stam Europe operates in six European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain.

Stam's expertise includes offices, residential, retail, warehouses/ logistics and light industrial.