News came last week that USD86.5 billion CBRE Global Investors has launched its own German fund management company, CBRE Global Investors Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft (KVG).
Marius Schoner (pictured), Germany country manager for the firm, explains that CBRE Global Investors has been in Germany since 2002 with EUR2.1 billion in commercial property in office, retail and logistics and a 30-person office in Frankfurt.
“This is the first time that we can offer a regulated product purely for German investors,” Schoner explains with the launch of the KVG platform or club.
The firm is hoping to target a total investment volume of EUR400 million by the end of the year for investment into commercial real estate in the big seven cities of Germany: Hamburg, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Munich, Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart.
“The idea is to go into cities that will benefit from urbanisation,” Schoner says. “We will focus on major metropolitan areas where we find properties where we can put more properties on a land plot, build additional buildings or add more floors. We will also look at opportunities to change use from office to residential which provides extra value.”
The investor audience for the new fund includes corporate pensions, insurance companies and also investors from the church. In terms of the German commercial real estate market, Schoner explains that the market has been fairly competitive, especially for core products. “We see products where we target active asset management strategies where we can provide value because prices are already high.”
The KVG structure enables CBRE Global Investors to offer German investors a route through a dedicated German fund management vehicle. Schoner says that this allows the firm to combine its real estate management expertise with the administrative capabilities for running a German real estate fund.
