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Sizeable losses for liquidating funds
The past four months have seen PREF II signing or closing its final three transactions, including the most recent acquisition of Theodor Heuss Allee 108 in Frankfurt, which it bought from a closed-ended fund formerly managed by AXA Merkens.
Specialist European investment manager Peakside Capital has committed all of the capital raised for its latest opportunistic real estate fund PREF II, fully 12 months ahead of the end of the planned investment period.
The owner-managed real estate Peakside carried out €600m of transactions in 18 months for the fund, which was launched in 2015. Peakside said PREF II is projected to exceed its target return of 20%.
PREF II is the latest value-add and opportunistic pan-European fund managed by Peakside, which was created as a management buyout from Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2010. The company now manages real estate assets totalling over €1bn in gross asset value with a focus on CEE and Germany. The company has offices in Frankfurt, Munich, Zug (CH), Warsaw, Prague and Luxembourg.
The past four months have seen PREF II signing or closing its final three transactions, including the most recent acquisition of Theodor Heuss Allee 108 in Frankfurt, which it bought from a closed-ended fund formerly managed by AXA Merkens.
Peakside said the 11,000 sqm building with seven floors and 160 parking spaces was “high quality” and had “asset management potential”. The company has already increased the occupancy level from 60% to over 80% by signing a long-term lease with an international employment and recruitment service provider.
PREF II has made seven investments, two of which, with a combined asset value exceeding €100m, have already been sold. The fund now owns five office and mixed-use schemes in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin, including Frankfurt Airport Center I, which it acquired through a joint venture. FAC I comprises more than 48,000sqm of flexible office and conference space with direct access to Terminal 1 of the Frankfurt International Airport.
Boris Schran, managing partner of Peakside Capital, said: “It is a testament to the whole Peakside Capital team that we have been able to execute transactions in excess of €600m of project volume for our second value-add/opportunistic fund in such a short timeframe and a rather challenging market environment.
"This milestone highlights our ability to secure smart and attractive investments, particularly in Germany, where we see continued prospects for value-add and opportunistic strategies.”
Schran added that Peakside had begun fundraising for its next vehicle, PREF III, which will pursue a similar strategy.
