Germany’s largest Spezialfonds in the starting blocks

The Frankfurt-based specialist fund asset manager Universal-Investment looks as if it is putting together Germany’s largest-ever Spezialfonds. The so-called Master Fund has a planned equity volume of €1bn and is targeting deal volume of €1.8bn, and represents somewhat of a coup for Universal, which was only granted approval to issue real estate Spezialfonds at the end of 2011.

The investor behind the Master Fund is a large German pension fund, who is officially unnamed but is thought to be the German banking pension fund BVV. The Master Fund is taking the route of a multi-manger mandate for its investor, administering the fund along with three specialist asset managers while itself holding responsibility for liquidity and currency management. The sectors targeted are office, retail, logistics and residential.

The Master Fund has apparently already made its first investment in Australia, and says it will be targeting assets worldwide priced between €5m and €50m apiece, using up to 50% debt leverage. Existing assets are the priority, although some project developments might be mixed in, the fund manager said.

According to Alexander Tannenbaum, board member at Universal responsible for real estate, “Since starting (real estate) operations in 2012, we’ve set up ten funds for institutional investors and asset managers in Germany and Luxembourg with a combined equity volume of more than €4bn.”