Pramerica Ground Lease Fund Raises £44 Million
Pramerica Real Estate Investors has raised an additional £44 million (€53 million) in new subscriptions to the Pramerica UK Ground Lease Fund since November 2011.
Pramerica Real Estate Investors has raised an additional £44 million (€53 million) in new subscriptions to the Pramerica UK Ground Lease Fund since November 2011.
The phrase “what can be measured can be managed” is one of the great clichés of management and business. And, like many enduring clichés, it has remained in common usage because there is real meaning and truth behind it. While you do not need to buy every syllable of this philosophy, it is important to recognise that it can be beneficial for behaviour, and investment decisions, to be evidence-based.
Buildings consume a large amount of energy, and until recently real estate energy bills were viewed as an uncontrollable expense. New software and technology are changing this. Investors now realise that energy expenses can be reduced through any of five paths: capital investment (retrofits), utility incentives, open-market procurement, occupant behaviour change and operational improvement.
Conventional wisdom says that, for all intents and purposes, European investors aren’t investing. According to a recently completed survey, it isn’t for lack of desire. On average, European investment schemes of all ilks have a 9.8 percent target for real estate investment, but only have 8.8 percent actually allocated. The investors in the survey would need to invest an additional €10 billion to reach their target allocations, which they’d like to do, if only they could find deals.
Over the quiet holiday weeks, I made an effort to clean up my messy office. I had piles on piles of presentation pitch books that friends and even strangers had sent me asking that I review them and provide comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. As I remember fondly the help that “veterans” gave me when I started out in the investment management business, I try my best to respond to such requests. In addition, I often find them quite interesting to read as it gives me a window on who is out there and what they are doing.
There is increasing “noise” around the impending water crisis and the greater degree of water scarcity. In February, parts of England were put on drought alert, reflecting reduced levels of rainfall over the past two winters, while other parts of England have more than sufficient supplies. In March, the European Environment Agency identified that a lack of water resources could threaten Europe’s productivity, and that in some river basins water scarcity continues to worsen. Water scarcity is an issue; it is a local problem but has global implications for society and business.
You know how it is. You’re coming up to the big 6-0 — and if you’re not, you will be — and you start thinking about that milestone called the retirement age that you’re hoping to come across on your journey through life at some point in the next decade. For many people, that milestone is still at a predetermined point; unlike death, the final destination after retirement, you know when retirement is coming. For some lucky others, retirement is an achievement that can be attained at a time of their choosing — early, on time or late.
Union Investment Real Estate, on behalf of the UniImmo: Deutschland fund, has acquired a four-star hotel under construction in Paris.
Terrace Hill Group has sold a UK residential portfolio to Akelius, a Swedish property group, for £75.35 million (€90.5 million).
London student housing is getting some new development. The Carlyle Group has acquired three development sites in London for £46 million (€55 million).
Local Shopping REIT Plc, a UK-REIT, is launching Local Retail Fund, a £60 million (€72 million) unlisted fund to invest in convenience retail stores.
Rockspring Property Investment Managers has acquired a multi-level shopping centre in Olsztyn, Poland, from Arka Property Funds.
Quintain Estates & Development Plc has acquired Grafton Advisors (2006) LLP, a specialist central London strategic property adviser.
Palmer Capital has taken control of 100 percent of Middle Europe Investments (MEI), a Dutch fund manager with €232 million of assets under management in central and eastern Europe.
Foreign interest has been keeping the central London office property market hot — and that interest is expected to stay keen in 2012.
UK-REIT Land Securities has agreed to sell the 38,000-square-metre St Johns Shopping Centre in Liverpool for £76.5 million.
The retail sector in Germany has recently attracted interest from investment managers such as Corestate Group and MGPA, and Savills suggests that the sector has investment potential due to its low shopping centre density compared with similar markets.
Imocominvest has acquired a 7,100-square-metre shopping centre in Saint-Omer, France, for €10 million.
Hines has begun construction of a 400-unit residential development in the centre of Kraków.
Henderson Global Investors has submitted a planning application to redevelop 1 Hagley Road, a 19-storey, 13,000-square-metre office tower in Birmingham.
France-based Amundi Real Estate, which was formed from the merger of the real estate investment management operations of Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, has acquired a stake in 5 Canada Square, a 50,000-square-metre building in London’s Canary Wharf district.
Henderson Global Investors has acquired two properties in Austria and the Netherlands on behalf of its German business, Warburg-Henderson KAG.
Evans Randall has acquired a data centre in London for £27 million (€32.4 million) in a joint venture with private investor clients from Saudi Arabia.
Frankfurt-based Deka Immobilien GmbH has sold an office building in Paris to a pool of French investors advised by DTZ Asset Management for approximately €166 million.
BPT Asset Management, on behalf of the BPT Secura real estate investment fund, has sold a retail centre in Tallinn, Estonia, to Selver, the property’s anchor tenant.
AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (REIM) has launched the Caesar Fund, a blind pool fund that will invest in core office properties across Europe.