Valad Europe will be looking to invest over €1 bn in Europe over the course of 2014, according to Chief Investment Officer David Kirkby.
Valad Europe will be looking to invest over €1 bn in Europe over the course of 2014, according to Chief Investment Officer David Kirkby.
'We have over €1 bn to invest in various markets where we see opportunities in Europe. The European real estate market is demonstrating attractive value qualities relative to other global real estate markets and we expect portfolio and single asset acquisitions activity to continue strongly in 2014 as we seek to invest early in the European real estate cycle,' Kirkby commented.
In the past 18 months alone, Valad Europe has grown its assets under management by €1.6 bn with the largest operations including the launch of the Valad European Diversified Fund (VEDF) with initial equity of €180 mln and total fund capacity of €450 mln as well as the acquisition of the Investment Adviser and Asset Manager operations of the €600 mln Polish Retail Fund from GE Capital.
Kirkby: 'As investment activity continues to pick up, we are experiencing accelerating growth across the business, especially working with an increasing number of investors who require specifically tailored investment strategies targeting value add and active asset management opportunities.'
Recently Valad Europe was appointed asset manager on a large private equity portfolio loan sale and on several new bank workout mandates with a combined value of over €470 mln. These included the Gemini (Propinvest) CMBS portfolio in the UK and the Mansford and Edeka retail CMBS mandates in Germany, while in the Netherlands it was appointed to manage the Landmark portfolio of office assets and the Dutch Offices I & II portfolios.
Kirkby added: 'Bank workouts have been a feature of the commercial real estate market since the financial crisis. As such, working to ensure maximum return of value on behalf of the lenders and receivers has been a core part of our activity. In the past year, we traded €600 mln in assets out of our bank workout and fund portfolios.'
To deal with rising activity in the sector, Valad Europe has strengthened its senior management team with the additions of Howard Barnes as head of Spain and Karl Delattre as head of France, as well as Thierry Leleu as head of Funds Management.
'Additions to our senior team reflect our ambitions to continue diversifying our business, in particular in Spain where we have opened a new office in Madrid and in France where Karl has a remit to grow the business and diversify into other asset classes such as office and retail,' Kirkby noted.
Valad Europe manages €4 bn of commercial investment and development assets across Europe.