La Française GREIM has raised more than €3 billion in 2018, an almost 40% increase on 2017, bringing its total real estate assets under management to over €19 billion.
1/ 2018 Fundraising
Institutional clients
In the current environment, real estate, which is uncorrelated to financial markets, is a real diversification solution for investors seeking higher potential returns. In light of the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the positive trend created by the development of the Grand Paris project, French and foreign institutional investors have demonstrated significant interest in real estate, and French real estate in particular.
La Française, which has three investment centers capable of sourcing assets throughout Europe and a development and fundraising team covering the European, Asian and Canadian markets, has been especially active in this segment and has raised almost €2 billion from major institutional investors through mandates and the management of real estate funds, almost 40% of which came from foreign (non-French) investors.
Among its most emblematic acquisitions under a mandate for Korean investors, La Française purchased “Le Balthazar”, an eight-story office building located on Place des Droits de l’Homme in Saint Denis (93), close to the Stade de France.
Retail clients
With over 40 years’ experience in creating and managing collective real estate investment vehicles, La Française is an industry benchmark for retail investors. The range of SCPIs it manages or sells, in particular theme-based funds, investing in European real estate, healthcare, or even the Grand Paris project, have raised €700 million from French retail investors. Real estate unit-linked insurance products have also been very successful. La Française manages almost €500 million in additional assets in these vehicles as of the end of 2018.
2/ Transactions
Thanks to its European investment platform, La Française recorded €2.5 billion in transactions, including €2.1 billion in acquisitions and €410 million in arbitrage transactions. Furthermore, in 2018, the Group continued its asset regeneration strategy, thereby underpinning the performance of its range of collective real estate investment vehicles.
Of the acquisitions completed in 2018, 88% involved office space, 5% were for retail space and 7% involved other assets, including managed residences (for seniors or tourists), activities or residential properties. The most emblematic acquisitions included:
- “L’Open”, a 9 158 m2 office property located in Issy-les-Moulineaux (92),
- office space (5 645 m2) at 100-104 Boulevard de Montparnasse in Paris (14th),
- a retail asset (5 469 m2) in Nice (06),
- a 4 137 m2 student residence in Gif-Sur-Yvette (92),
- a tourist residence (32 apartments totaling 1 975 m2) in Deauville (14),
- and a number of acquisitions abroad, in Amsterdam and Germany (Essen, Bamberg, Frankfurt).
“La Française is an asset manager, but not only! Our business consists in anticipating the needs of investors and tenants in order to make lasting investments and thereby create investment solutions for our clients that offer return potential. La Française makes every effort to achieve this objective. The company’s European real estate investment platform is a testament to this, as is its commitment to innovation. Its new securities account real estate investment solution is the most recent example of this commitment. And soon, for investors seeking more diversification, a collective real estate vehicle, invested in vineyards properties, will be launched”, concludes Marc Bertrand, CEO of La Française Real Estate Managers.
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