KGAL owners sell majority stake to French privateers
The trend towards consolidation in Germany’s fund industry continued with the move this month by fund provider KGAL to sell itself to two French private investors. Shareholders Commerzbank (45%), Bayerische Landesbank (30%), HASPA Finanzholding (15%) and Bankhaus Sal Oppenheim (10%) sold almost 90% of their shares in the fund manager to French private investors Francis Louvard and Gregory Ingram, while retaining a 10% stake.
The new French owners said in a statement that they supported the Hamburg-based KGAL’s growth strategy, which has traditionally been in real estate, infrastructure and aviation. The two are also managing directors at Thunderbolt Partners, their Luxembourg-based “private investment vehicle serving as a conglomerate platform to acquire majority stakes in well-established European companies.”
Founded in Hamburg in 1968, KGAL managed €25.1bn of assets at end-2012, of which €12.7bn was in real estate. Investors have put €6.4bn in equity capital into its 135 active limited partnership funds, while it has structured and financed more than €30bn of individual or portfolio real estate transactions over the past 45 years, and more recently has carried out numerous investments in aircraft and solar and wind power infrastructure.
KGAL chairman Georg Reul will be vacating his seat under the new management, with Kurt Holderer, the current CFO, stepping up to the top role in the interim. Reul only arrived at KGAL in August last year from the management board at IVG Immobilien, succeeding Carsten Eckart, who stepped down as chairman after five years at the helm.
The sale to the new shareholders does not come as a big surprise in Germany. Commerzbank as the largest shareholder originally inherited its stake with the takeover of Dresdner Bank some years ago, and as long ago as 2009 had been offering its stake in KGAL to potential buyers. BayernLB has been shedding its non-core activities since receiving state help at the beginning of the finance crisis, while Sal Oppenheim has also been thought to be looking to exit.