Pamera takeover gives Cornerstone strong European platform
The US-headquartered fund manager Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers took a big step towards creating a pan-European platform for its investment when it took over Germany’s Pamera Asset Management earlier this month.
The deal will give Cornerstone an additional €1bn in office and retail assets as well as a team of 38 staff across five offices in Germany. Cornerstone said it will use the acquisition to launch new real estate products in Germany for domestic and international investors, focusing on core and value-added markets.
Pamera, which has offices in Frankfurt, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Munich, was established in 2010 by Christoph Wittkop, Gunther Deutsch, Lars Borghaus and Maximilian Isenberg. Wittkop and Deutsch will join Cornerstone’ European board.
Pamera manages assets on behalf of Bouwfonds, Curzon, LaSalle, Patron, Tristan and Stuttgarter Insurance Group’s SIS fund, among others. It said it will continue to work with its existing client base of German and international private equity investors, loan servicers and institutional investors operating in the value-add and opportunistic segments of the market.
Cornerstone, a subsidiary of US insurer MassMutual Financial Group, currently manages €32bn of assets globally, of which €1.5bn are in Europe. The firm established its position on the continent with the acquisition of UK-based firm Protego in 2010, which brought with it assets in Finland, Germany, Sweden and the UK. The firm focuses on retail, office and industrial properties but, increasingly, is looking at alternative sectors and, particularly, international capital flows in and out of Germany.
Pamera CEO Christoph Wittkop, who becomes Head of Germany under the new structure, added some background to the merger of the two companies: “Both our companies were pursuing the same goal – building up a successful investment management organisation with German and international institutional investors. This requires not just a local presence as well as active asset management, but you also need a certain size and financial muscle, because of the increased regulatory burden but also to avail of more opportunities as a co-investor.
“MassMutual is a large insurance company and therefore a potential either lead investor or a seed investor in pools or club deals in Germany. Cornerstone can also offer German investors interesting perspective, for instance investments in the USA.
Pamera says little will change for its German operations, staff, and client base, who will continue to deal with the existing management team. Pamera plans new investment vehicles, such as Spezialfonds for German investors and Luxembourg structures for investors from the USA and Asia, but this will happen from next year onwards