Griffin Capital Co. raised and issued $1.6 billion of investor capital in 2018, an increase of 10 percent over 2017. The company has raised $11.6 billion in investor equity capital inflows to its investment programs and funds since January 2012.
The company’s Institutional Access interval funds made up the majority of the investor inflows for the year at $1.1 billion, of which $1 billion was raised for the Griffin Institutional Access Real Estate Fund. Griffin Institutional Access Real Estate fund also grew its assets under management to $2.8 billion, as of Dec. 31, 2018.
In December 2018, GCEAR and Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT II entered into a definitive agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction, creating a $4.75 billion self-managed REIT, which generates significant benefits for shareholders, including substantial cost savings, increased operating efficiencies, and immediate accretion to earnings and cash flow. The merger will combine two highly complementary portfolios with similar construction and investment mandates, significantly increasing the size, scale and diversification of the combined company.
In August 2018, GCEAR announced the execution of a $250 million purchase agreement for Perpetual Preferred Shares. The first tranche of the Series A Preferred Shares were purchased in their entirety by SHBNPP Global Professional Investment Type Private Real Estate Trust No. 13 (H), a trust sponsored by Hana Financial Investment, the sole bookrunner. The lead investor in the trust is NH Investment & Securities, and Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management is the trust asset manager.
