US heavyweights have landed in a big way in Europe and are now leaving their mark on the industry. Here are profiles of three of the biggest winners, according to the latest edition of PropertyEU's Top 100 Investors.

US heavyweights have landed in a big way in Europe and are now leaving their mark on the industry. Here are profiles of three of the biggest winners, according to the latest edition of PropertyEU's Top 100 Investors.

BLACKSTONE
By how much has the company grown in the past 3 years?
Blackstone has trebled its assets under management in Europe in the past three years via a canny combination of acquiring loan portfolios, setting up a European logistics arm and snapping up a number of ‘big ticket’ deals. The appetite of the US private equity giant – described as the silverblack of the gorillas in the European real estate jungle – does not yet appear sated.

How has the company grown and where?
While Blackstone initially focused on corporate buyouts, its real estate business has soared in recent years. Blackstone’s first three European real estate funds are now fully invested. Its third European real estate fund raised €3.2 bn in 2008 and was fully invested by the end of last year. It has also built up a significant real estate loan portfolio from distressed European lenders and in October 2013 completed the acquisition of European shopping centre developer Multi Corporation in one of Europe’s largest distressed transactions since the onset of the financial crisis.

Which sectors and countries is it now targeting?
Blackstone has extended its investment push this year. In March, it launched its fourth European real estate fund, BREP Europe IV, which saw it raise €5.2 bn in just six months to create the largest fund of its kind in Europe. Blackstone’s fourth fund, like its predecessors, has a target gross annual return of 20% and also has the remit to invest in all asset classes and geographical markets in Europe. While Blackstone has not disclosed how much it plans to invest in Europe this year, it is expected to invest at least as much as during the past two years when it invested over $3 bn of equity a year. After acquiring the Frankfurt ‘Pollux’ high-rise from IVG Immobilien for around €100 mln in September, the group is believed to be in negotiations to acquire the MesseTurm office building in the city from GLL Real Estate Partners for €250 mln, according to those who track the market.

BLACKROCK
By how much has the company grown in the past 3 years?
Global investment company BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with €3.36 tln of AUM globally as of end-June 2014.

Founded 26 years ago by CEO Larry Fink along with seven other partners, the company has evolved from a fixed-income and equities investor to an investment behemoth, acquiring asset managers, including Barclays Global Investors, at the height of the financial crisis. It invested €369.8 mln in European real estate in the first half of 2014. In total, its European real estate division had €5.68 bn of AUM as of end-June 2014, compared to €17.5 bn of real estate assets globally.

Which sectors and countries is it now targeting?
The asset manager has a broad investment remit, investing in a range of assets from core to opportunistic in Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East. How has the company grown and where?
However, despite its size, real estate accounts for just 0.52% of its portfolio. Nonetheless, the plan is to grow the European real estate portfolio to around 35% of the overall real estate portfolio, thereby mirroring the 35% and 33% already invested in the Americas and Asia Pacific respectively. In August, it launched its BlackRock Multi-Manager Alternative Strategies Fund, designed to offer individual investors the opportunity to access multiple alternative investment strategies in a single open-end mutual fund. The fund can also invest in real estate.
In October last year, BlackRock acquired private equity property investment advisory firm MGPA for an undisclosed amount in a bid to expand its real estate business in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. MGPA managed about $12 bn, focusing on real estate fund management, co-investments and separate account mandates for institutional investors. Last year, BlackRock’s return on equity came in at 11.1%, slightly below the Fortune 500’s median of 13.7%.

TIAA HENDERSON REAL ESTATE
By how much has the company grown in the past 3 years?
Officially launched on 1 April 2014, TIAA Henderson Real Estate brings together the European and Asian real estate businesses of US financial services group TIAA-CREF and UK-based fund manager Henderson Global Investors. Together, the TIAA-CREF real estate and TH Real Estate platforms represent one of the largest real estate investment management enterprises worldwide with a combined total of $77 bn in real estate assets under management as of end-June 2014. The new combine has a Europe AUM of €18 bn from the same date which marks a 40% increase on Henderson GI’s 2012 figure.

What prompted the joint venture?
The main rationale, according to the company’s European managing director Mike Sales, was the diminished popularity of fund vehicles and pooled funds since the onset of the global financial crisis. ‘Joint ventures and segregated accounts are now more the flavour of the day,’ he told PropertyEU in a recent interview. ‘To compete on that front as an investment manager, we needed to align ourselves with more co-investment and seed capital. Consolidation is a much-used word, but you have to offer a well-resourced platform to tick investors’ boxes, like compliance and risk, corporate transactions, treasury, VAT etc. All of that points in the direction of a big platform.’

Which sectors and countries is it targeting?
The new combined entity has embarked on a veritable shopping spree across Europe this year, snapping up retail, office and logistics properties in the UK, Germany and Austria. It is also targeting retail in Italy and in the Nordics. Overall, retail assets account for the bulk of TH’s portfolio or roughly 60% with offices accounting for another 24% and logistics 8%. Other markets that Sales is targeting in Europe include Dutch offices. Altogether it has a pipeline of around €1 bn through to the end of the year which would bring the total to around €2-2.5 bn this year.