Internos, the €3.9bn European investment manager, plans to invest about €750m into real estate across Europe this year. A good chunk, put at about €400m, is being targeted at German retail property including shopping centres and neighbourhood malls (“Fachmarktzentren”), as well as into nursing homes and office properties.
Having completed €330m of acquisitions across five funds in 2014, Internos says it is looking to take advantage of specific opportunities in the European real estate market.
In the hotel sector, Internos is targeting a further €225m of investments for Hotel Fund 1 and its Hotel value-add mandate, which will bring hotel assets to €700m and add to the twelve hotels acquired since 2012.
In the German care homes sector, it has raised €80m of equity for Internos Care Invest Fund 1 and is currently in negotiation on €50m of assets. Also in Germany, Internos will be looking to make new buys on behalf of SH-Immo, a fund management mandate with a German Pensionskasse, which acquired two office assets in Cologne. It will invest a further €100m in German retail parks for Internos Novapierre Allemagne, its joint venture with French partner Paref Gestion.
Meanwhile, Internos has sold the remaining assets in the German Retail Partnership (GRP), a 55-asset German retail portfolio, to a fund belonging to New York-based Marathon Asset Management. The sale was constructed in the form of a share deal, and marks the liquidation of the fund which was launched in 2007 as a closed-ended Luxembourg ‘fonds commun de placement’. The fund had raised equity commitments from several institutional investor groups including co-investment by the GPT Group.
The retail assets are a combination of neighbourhood shopping centres, retail parks and standalone supermarkets geographically spread across Germany, with the majority in Bavaria, Rhineland Palatinate and Hesse. The properties are well-let and anchored by strong national retail chains such as REWE, Netto, Norma, Edeka and Penny.
Last year Internos raised debt financing of more than €200m at rates typically below 2%, which boosted returns in its newer funds, as well as refinancing or extending a further €500m.
Earlier this month Internos bought ten German retail properties for €38.3m on behalf of its SCPI Novapierre Allemagne, its French partner. Internos will be the asset manager for the 25,000 sqm portfolio, which are located in Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia. The French-managed fund has raised €50m but overall is targeting €200m, and will invest in smaller German shopping malls with 4-6 units, anchored by prominent retailers.
