Industry News

Blackstone has reached an agreement to establish a newly constructed, purpose-built European headquarters located at its long-term London home, Berkeley Square. Blackstone has been a major investor in Europe for more than two decades, with substantial investments across its private equity, real estate, infrastructure, tactical opportunities, growth, and credit businesses. Recent significant European investments include Bourne Leisure, Mileway Logistics, Sage Homes and Esdec Solar. The decision to fully lease what will be one of London’s premier office buildings reflects the...

Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) has acquired a majority share in Simply Affordable Homes from Centrus Financial, a corporate finance advisor to and long-term supporter of the U.K. affordable-housing sector, which will retain a minority interest. This follows Savills IM’s acquisition of Pitmore, the U.K. development and build-to-rent (BTR) specialist, and creates a strong UK residential platform for Savills IM. The first new product after the acquisition will be the launch of Savills IM’s U.K. Affordable Housing Fund. The fund...

A 260.000 sqft London office project owned by Goldman Sachs Asset Management sustainable real estate developer EDGE has secured funding from Local Pensions Partnership Investments (LPPI) and The London Fund. Back in January, Goldman Sachs acquired a 75% stake in the EDGE London Bridge development as it teamed up with EDGE develop the project. Local government pension scheme-backed LPPI and The London Fund have now disclosed they will own the 75% stake in the project together with Goldman Sachs as...

Global real estate advisor Savills has acquired Knight Frank’s commercial property and asset management team in Poland. As a result of the arrangement, 35 employees will join Savills whose Polish property management portfolio will now surpass 1.2 million sqm, including retail and mixed-use projects. The Knight Frank portfolio consists mainly of office buildings in Warsaw and other large Polish cities. These include West Station I and II (115.900 sqm), Miasteczko Orange (77.100 sqm), and Maraton A and B (39.300 sqm)...

Resolution Life, a UK-based global insurance group, and Blackstone, have announced a strategic partnership to combine and grow global life insurance and annuity consolidation businesses. As part of the agreement, Blackstone will become Resolution Life’s investment manager in certain areas. That includes private credit, real estate, and asset-backed finance markets. Blackstone will manage an initial target of up to €25 billion of Resolution Life’s existing private assets in the first year. As Resolution Life completes new transactions and new investments...

BNP Paribas REIM and a number of German Institutional Investors, mainly pension funds, have committed €200 million to the latest closing of the Catella European Residential III Fund, one of Europe’s largest cross-border residential investment vehicles, taking its total capital raised to more than €1.2 billion. CER III is managed by Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) and has a diversified portfolio of investments encompassing around 30 residential properties in seven countries across Europe. Michael Fink, managing director, CRIM, said...

Bridges Sustainable Growth Funds have made a majority investment into Evora Global, a UK consultancy that helps clients around the globe to improve the sustainability and reduce their climate risk of their real estate portfolios. Founded in 2011 by Chris Bennett, Ed Gabbitas and Paul Sutcliffe, Evora has grown rapidly in recent years, following the addition of key senior hires and as demand for action on sustainable finance and climate risk has risen up the agenda of corporations generally. The...

German investor Patrizia has acquired a residential complex in the northern Dutch university city of Groningen in an offmarket, forward-funding deal from developer Borghese Real Estate. The 13.159 sqm scheme, known as The Yard, comprises 160 apartments in the mid-range affordable rental segment, ranging in size between 50 sqm and 115 sqm. The complex is located in the Reitdiepzone, a new residential district emerging to the northwest of the city centre near Groningen University’s Zernike campus. It is scheduled for...

Norwegian insurer DNB Livforsikring has sold Vasahuset at Kortbyrån 19 and 20 in central Stockholm to local pension fund KPA Pension, part of the Folksam Group for SEK 3 billion (€276 million/$269 million). “We are continuing our profitable expansion of the property portfolio, and it feels good to now acquire these two stable management properties in the middle of our core market in Stockholm. The location is the best in Sweden, and the office premises are attractive on the rental...