Kintyre hits €1.5bn of AUM
Frankfurt-based real estate investment and management firm, Kintyre, grew its AUM by more than 20% last year to €1.5bn, in a sign that more investors are setting their sights on Germany as Brexit chaos deepens in the UK.
‘We have a joint venture model, so when we invest, we do so as minority shareholders,’ Adam Pearce, co-founder and managing partner of Kintyre, told REFIRE. ‘We looked at over 100 transactions last year but only did two deals totaling €150m. We operate more in regional locations but finding assets was very hard in Germany last year. This year, there will be more investment opportunities but we’re looking at smaller assets. We’ll probably still invest around €150m but over more deals.’
In August, Kintyre acquired a strategic 5.1% interest in the Drehscheibe shopping centre in Bochum, which comprises 12,000 sqm. ‘At Kintyre, the repositioning of retail property is in our genes,’ said Pearce. ‘We are delighted that the repositioning of the project can now be combined with our long-term full-service management of the Drehscheibe’shopping centre.’
Kintyre holds mandates on around 750,000 sqm of commercial real estate, with 140 assets throughout Germany across the firm’s full-service platform. This year, its focus will be on innovation and technology, following the launch in December 2018 of Kintyre DS GmbH, the firm’s vehicle for driving its digitisation and innovation agenda.
The Kintyre DS platform focuses on the advancement of existing digital transformation innovations, as well as the research and development required for future initiatives. To encourage, support and build on the digital transformation of real estate, the new business will develop strategic partnerships with selected tech enterprises, including with industry newcomer realxdata, the real estate data and analytics business. The partnership will enable Kintyre to consolidate enormous amounts of real estate market data, along with that from proprietary sources, within a single cloud-based solution, translating it in real time into valuable insights, thereby providing greater transparency and faster decision-making for portfolio and asset appraisal, letting, and market research.
According to Khaled Thomas Shukri, an investment manager at Kintyre, ‘the use of new technologies and the advance of machine learning and big data analysis means that the real estate industry is being transformed’: ‘At Kintyre, we believe that the manner in which our industry responds to this digital transformation is vital and the new business platform, along with our partnership with realxdata, are a result of our desire to be at the leading edge of this technological revolution,’ he said. ‘Already, at the push of a button, it is possible through realxdata’s cloud-based solution to analyse our portfolios’ performance, research market developments and benchmark our portfolio against other investments,’ he added.
Kintyre also has some ambitious plans. It is currently in the process of redeveloping former shopping centre, Märkisches Zentrum, in Berlin. The urban redevelopment will comprise around 10,000 sqm of office space as well as two residential towers featuring apartments of 40 sqm to 70 sqm. It is due to be completed in 2022, according to Pearce. The current buildings in Märkische Zentrum, which provide a total lettable area of around 55,000 sqm, occupy a 37,000 sqm site. Originally built in the 1960s, it has been modernised and extended several times.
In response to escalating construction costs within Germany, Kintyre has also committed to expanding its internal project management and construction team in 2019, to support and help control costs for existing clients and investment partners. (ssk)