Quantum launches €500m follow-up German residential fund
Hamburg-based investor and developer Quantum has launched a new residential fund, which will focus on fast-growing German metropolitan areas and has a target volume of €500m. By its first closing on June 30th the firm had raised €150m in equity commitments from German institutional investors.
Including planned leverage of 50%, the residential Spezialfonds "Habitare" will have €300m immediately available for acquisitions, the firm said. It plans to invest in a 'core' diversified residential portfolio in selected, fast-growing metropolitan regions in Germany, and is targeting a dividen payout of 4% to 4.5% annually. The fund is the successor of "Habitare", Quantum’s first ever Spezialfonds, which fully invested its €1bn target volume.
The owner-managed Quantum was established in 1999 by Frank Gerhard Schmidt and Philipp Schmitz-Morkramer as an investor and project developer, and has offices in Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt. It currently has over €4bn of assets under management, and has completed €2.9bn of developments totaling 900,000 sqm, with a further 13 projects totalling 300,000 sqm in its pipeline.
A recent acquisition was the 8,200 sqm Chausseehof office building near Berlin's Nordbahnhof railway station and the Natural History Museum. The seller was the ActivumSG Fund II, which bought the mixed-used asset five years ago with a third of the office space vacant. The property is now fully-leased, with the main tenant being the Leibnitz association of non-university rsearch institutues. A hotel and residential block at the rear of the building have already been sold.
According to re-positioning specialist ActivumSG founder Saul Goldstein, “Back in 2011, we were one of the few buyers able to transact swiftly and to handle the complexities of this property. A third of the office space was vacant when we acquired it and this we eliminated through our leasing efforts, to double the operating income. We have exceeded our business plan by far — thanks to strong tenant and investor demand for well-located buildings like this, which stands in a central location in Berlin and enjoys excellent public transportation links.”
The Jersey-headquartered ActivumSG Fund II raised €248.5 million of equity by its final close in 2011. To date, the fund has sold eight of its dozen assets, as it lowers its German engagement in favour of the Spanish market. Its remaining investments are the Joli Coeur and Metropol Park residential developments in Berlin; a retail-anchored property that integrates the mainline railway station in Augsburg, and an office building in Mannheim, southwest Germany.