ARA Venn rakes in €200m for latest commercial real estate fund

ARA Venn has locked in €200 million ($224 million) in a first close of its Venn Commercial Real Estate Fund II (VeCREF II), which will invest in whole loans secured by commercial real estate assets across Western Europe.

The fund was backed by returning institutional investors that invested in the fund’s predecessor, VeCREF I. That fund deployed more than €520 million ($583 million) across 24 commercial real estate loans.

VeCREF II will target loans secured by value-add real estate opportunities across all asset classes, including residential and alternatives with a focus on the major conurbations in six core countries in Western Europe, namely France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, the firm said in a statement.

Beatrice Dupont, partner in the commercial real estate team, said ARA Venn is currently analyzing a number of opportunities to deploy capital “into a market which promises to be very attractive for real estate de