La Française, international asset management group with total assets under management of 50 billion euros as at 30/06/2020, has streamlined its real estate division, which represents close to 25 billion euros in assets under management, a figure that has increased four-fold over the past ten years.
In the wake of COVID-19, La Française Real Estate Managers is pursuing and accelerating its development. The asset manager has recorded close to 900 million euros in fundraising YTD as at 30/06/2020 and closed 17 acquisitions, for a total investment volume of c.a. 930 million euros. More recently, the asset manager finalized the acquisition of two office buildings, in London and Amsterdam. Despite the challenging global environment, La Française Real Estate Managers is actively reinforcing its investment teams and overall infrastructure in order to successfully meet the needs of its clients, which have increasing appetite for real estate.
Moving forward, all real estate activities will be marketed under a single brand, La Française Real Estate Managers, replacing La Française Real Estate Partners International in the UK and in Germany. Additionally, two sub-divisions have been created and will co-exist to better serve the diverse needs of its investor base:
- The Institutional division, under the supervision of David Rendall, currently Managing Director of La Française Real Estate Partners International and soon to be named Managing Director of La Française Real Estate Managers, is responsible for adhoc real estate investment solutions specifically designed for institutional investors on Core/Core+, Value Added and Opportunist strategies. He is supported by a team of qualified investment professionals who have expanded their expertise beyond the three primary European real estate markets (France, Germany and the UK, including Ireland) to include Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium:
- Jens Goettler, Managing Director, La Française Real Estate Managers-Germany
Jens Goettler has accompanied the group in its international expansion since the opening of the Frankfurt based real estate investment center in 2014. Just six years later, under his responsibility, the group has experienced considerable expansion and is now dealing out of Frankfurt, Hamburg and more recently Munich. The German branch is thus capable of covering the seven primary German office markets (Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart) from these three strategic locations.
- Peter Balfour, Director of Investments, La Française Real Estate Managers-UK
Peter Balfour has been working hand in hand with Jens Goettler and David Rendall for fifteen years and was present at the founding of the group’s real estate investment center in London in 2014.
- Leslie Villatte, newly appointed Director of Investments and Institutional Real Estate Business Development - France Leslie Villatte recently joined La Française Real Estate Managers and will be working in close synergy with her foreign counterparts, Jens Goettler and Peter Balfour.
- The Retail division, under the supervision of Marc-Olivier Penin, Managing Director of La Française Real Estate Managers, covers all real estate investment solutions and services specifically targeting retail investors, including the group’s wide range of French collective real estate investments vehicles. La Française Real Estate Managers is in fact the leading manager of French collective real estate investment vehicles in terms of capitalisation (Source: IEIF as at 30/06/2020) and has collected 670 million euros YTD (30/06/2020) in such vehicles.
Download the press release