Omega teams up with dentists pension fund for daycare investments

The Cologne-based fund manager Omega Immobilien has launched a €50m daycare property fund with a pension fund for regional German dentists association, Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Nordrhein (VZN) as sole investor.

The fund, Omega Kita-Welten Rheinland, will be investing in the Rhineland, the area in North Rhine-Westphalia which includes the Middle and Lower Rhine area, which is one of Germany’s most densely populated regions.

The fund’s strategy focuses on ongoing and recently completed projects with experienced nursery providers and it also plans to invest in existing day-care centres and day-care portfolios.

Explaining the fund concept, Achim Gräfen. a member of the executive board for funds at Omega, said: “We designed the closed-ended special AIF “OMEGA Kita-Welten Rheinland” in conjunction with the VZN corporation under public law as sole investor. It earmarks an investment volume of around €55m and promises high investment security.”

The leases have a long term of 20 to 30 years and are secured by statutory local benefit obligations.

Uwe Zeidler, a managing director of the VZN in Dusseldorf, said: “With this fund, we are actively tackling the supply crisis in nursery care. By supporting public and non-profit providers, providing them with new nurseries and helping them run sustainably, we are also meeting our social and educational responsibilities in our home region.”

Martin Herkenrath, executive director of the Omega group, said: “This product allows us to tap into another market niche – as we did with our predecessor fund HMG Grundwerte Rheinland – where we have the necessary market transparency and access to products.”

North Rhine-Westphalia has high demand for day-care places, and the state has an acknowledged shortfall of 70,000 day-care slots, due to rising birth rates and more women now active in the workplace. Germany has committed to granting a legal right to a nursery spot for children who need one, obliging local councils to ensure a growing supply of places.

Omega earlier this year set up a joint venture with French property group Yxime, part of the Duval Group, to provide clients access to the German market. Yxime has an established French customer base of property investors, institutional investors, family offices and project developers, with €17bn of assets under management. Under the joint venture, Omega Immobilien will help identify investment opportunities and take on the asset, property and facility management.