Industry News

The proposed sale of AXA ’s €844 billion investment management business to BNP Paribas could see the creation of two enlarged real estate and infrastructure fund managers with assets under management (AUM) of €108 billion and €19.7 billion, respectively. The French insurer announced that it had entered into an exclusive negotiation to sell AXA Investment Managers to French banking group BNP Paribas for €5.1 billion. Under the terms of the proposed transaction, AXA and BNP Paribas would enter into a...

AXA IM Alts , a global leader in alternative investments and AXA Investment Managers’ alternative business unit, with €184 billion of assets under management, has completed the final phase of its Assembly Bristol project with the practical completion of Assembly Bristol’s Building B. Building B delivers 28,000 square feet of Grade A office space targeting BREEAM Excellent accreditation across six storeys in the centre of Bristol. AXA IM Alts has let one storey of Building B, totalling 4,500 square feet...

DWS today announced the off-market acquisition of a newly constructed, prime logistics asset located in Greater Paris from French developer, Télamon, also the facility’s builder. The acquisition is on behalf of an institutional separate account mandate managed by DWS. Designed for the French subsidiary of GLS, one of the leading express parcel delivery service providers in Europe, the courier warehouse is fully leased to GLS France on a 12-year term and will become one of their main national hubs. The...

Pan-European real estate private equity manager ActivumSG has, on behalf of ActivumSG Fund VI, sold a 190,000 square foot plot of land in Meco, Madrid to Pure DC. The site sits within the Madrid-to-Barcelona transport corridor, one of Spain and Europe’s most economically significant regions. It will be home to Pure DC’s first data centre in Spain. Madrid is considered a highly sought-after data centre market with strong supply-demand dynamics and is comparably underdeveloped relative to other major European cities...

The 25hours hotel Paper Island in Copenhagen has been completed and transferred to Union Investment’s holdings. The investment and asset manager entered the Scandinavian hotel market by acquiring the planned hotel in 2022. The property is held by institutional open-ended real estate fund UniInstitutional European Real Estate. The 25hours hotel officially opened on 27 July this year. It is let to KNSA Hospitality Kopenhagen ApS for 25 years and will be operated under the 25hours lifestyle brand. The 25hours Hotels...

Knight Frank, the global property consultancy, has been appointed to sell The French Horn hotel and restaurant in Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire. The property, which has been owned and run by the same family since 1972, is located along the banks of the Thames, with over 460 metres of river frontage, 14 large bedrooms in the main house, 8 cottages and an award winning 100 cover restaurant. There are also two large houses on the property, which subject to planning could be...

Hines , the global real estate investor, developer and manager, has secured over €1 billion of equity commitments for its Hines European Property Partners fund (“HEPP” or “the fund”). The figure has been reached in July 2024 following an acceleration of commitments from existing and new partners over the last quarter, illustrating both renewed confidence in the market and conviction in Hines’ track record of executing its fund strategies. Source: Press release sent 24 July 2024

Moorfield Group , the UK-focused real estate investment manager, has raised an initial £330 million for MREFV - the latest fund in its flagship value-add series - and co-investment initiatives, so far. The total equity raised came from institutional investors based in Europe, North America and Japan, including Moorfield’s first UK-domiciled investors (university college endowments). Moorfield’s ‘hub-and-spoke’ model incorporates MREFV as the ‘hub’, with sector-specific side-car vehicles as ‘spokes’, that are seeded by the ‘hub’ and grown with additional co-investment...

PGIM Real Estate has sold an open-air hospitality portfolio of premium ‘resort-style’ camp sites in Veneto and Tuscany Italy to Sandaya, one of the leading campsite operator in Europe. The sale is on behalf of PGIM Real Estate’s European value-add strategy. PGIM Real Estate is the $206 billion real estate investment arm of PGIM, and the third largest real estate firm globally. Since 2021, PGIM Real Estate has built its portfolio of premium open-air hospitality sites through strategic acquisitions of...