Gothaer gives mandate of €600m for European RE investment

The Cologne-headquartered Gothaer Insurance Group has awarded BNP Paribas REIM’s German subsidiary a €600m mandate to invest in European real estate. The insurance company plans to raise its real estate quota from its current 7.2% to 10%.

BNP will set up and manage a Spezialfonds for Gothaer, which will focus on euro-zone countries, excluding Germany, with investments to be made over the next three years. These will include core and core-plus office, retail, hotel and logistics assets, with individual investments ranging between €20m and €80m. Individual value add-properties will also be acquired.

According to Christof Kessler, chief executive for capital investment at Gothaer Asset Management, “Gothaer is increasingly concentrating on infrastructure for its capital investments, with a focus on renewable energy and real estate.

“In the mid-term, we intend to expand our real estate ratio to 10%. With this projected European portfolio, we aim to expand our real estate investment, to diversify and, simultaneously, to increase the overall return on our real estate assets.”

While German and international investors in Europe are focusing their investment activity on Germany, the manager, according to Georg Gmeineder, in charge of portfolio management, sees “chances and would like to maximise pinpointed opportunities in other markets as well”.

Gothaer Group has so far invested €2.3bn in real estate, accounting for 7.2% of its overall assets under management.

BNP Paribas REIM Germany manages around €4.7bn of which about €4.4bn are in 13 special funds, two Luxembourg vehicles and three separate institutional accounts. Gothaer Group is one of Germany's major insurance groups and one of the country's largest mutual insurance associations with over 4.1 million members. It has €4.5bn in annual premium income, while Gothaer Asset Management manages around €28bn in assets.