Quantum to invest €120m across Germany for pension fund
Hamburg-based private real estate investor and project developer Quantum Immobilien AG is acting as asset and portfolio manager for a new €120m Spezialfonds being set up by BNP Paribas REIM Germany on behalf of an as yet unnamed German occupational pension fund, or Versorgungswerk.
Quantum Immobilien KVG will focus on the office, retail and residential sectors in Germany’s seven largest cities for the fund, which is designed to give the pension fund investor “a significant increase in its real estate exposure with this step”. The mandate allows for diversification beyond the biggest cities into medium-sized German cities and even other European cities.
Quantum is taking on the risk management and reporting, as well as setting up and administering the fund. It said it had already made its first acquisition for the fund, closing a forward-deal structure to acquire a Berlin residential project with 200 units with about 15,000 sqm in the city’s Mitte district, due for completion by 2017.
Quantum Immobilien KVG already manages around €3.8bn in real estate assets, one-third of which is for individual fund mandates.
According to Reinhard Mattern, chairman of the board at BNP Paribas REIM Germany, “Indirect real estate investments are among the preferred alternatives for institutional investors in the current low interest rate environment”. BNP Paribas REIM Germany manages €4.5bn, most of it divided among 12 Spezialfonds and two Luxembourg vehicles for institutional investors.
Meanwhile, Quantum recently closed on a €70m loan facility for its joint venture with fellow Hamburg property investor Alstria Office REIT with the Hanover-based Deutsche Hypothekenbank. The JV is the newly-refurbished, historically-significant Kaisergalerie office and retail asset in Hamburg.
The listed early-20th century building re-opened at the end of last year, having previously housed iconic local theatre Ohnsorg Theater. The refurbished asset now offers 18,000 sqm of gross lettable area, 11,600 sqm. of which is office and 4,800 sqm retail space in a passage that links two inner-city high streets.