ECE €2bn shopping centre fund goes full steam ahead

German investment and retail asset manager ECE has raised €740m in equity commitments for its second European shopping centre fund.

The Hamburg-based company’s European Prime Shopping Centre Fund II is targeting equity of €850m and plans to invest up to €2bn between now and late-2018. The fund is backed by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and insurance companies from Europe, the US and Asia. Last year the fund had its first close at €500m, and like its predecessor fund, has also received commitments from the Otto family and ECE employees.

ECE Fund II will continue the investment strategy of ECE Fund I and focus on acquiring existing European shopping centres with value-add potential. It has just bought its first assets, one in Germany and the other in Italy.

It bought the Stern-Center mall in downtown Lüdenscheid (North-Rhine Westphalia) from Irish investors. The 30,000 sqm centre with 110 retailers over four floors was opened in 1977, and has been managed by ECE itself since 1991. It is the largest shopping centre in the Sauerland region, with a cachement area of 440,000 inhabitants.

It also bought an Italian asset, La Cartiera, near Pompeii, which ECE said had achieved a strong market position south of the Gulf of Naples. The 30,000 sqm property, which opened in 2012, is let to 115 tenants, including Italian grocery chain Conad, electrical retailer Mediaworld and H&M. Again, ECE Italia has been managing the property, so knows the asset well.

In November the fund will expecting to buy Zielone Arkady in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, which was developed by ECE.