Aberdeen Property Investors announced the final closing of Aberdeen Property Partners (AIPP), Europe's largest pooled property fund of funds. The fund, which was oversubscribed, is the first of its kind in Europe backed by a pan-European group of instititional investors. With total equity of €623.5 million AIPP will build up a gross real estate exposure of some €1.9 billion through investments in a number of property funds across Europe.
The fund, which is managed by Aberdeen's subsidiary AIP Indirect Investment Management (API IIM), was launched in February 2005 with €161.5 million of equity commitments. Lead investors included Folksam, Nordea Life & Pension and The State Pensions Fund in Finland.
Anders Åström, Managing Director of API IIM, commented:
Since our first closing, we have raised another 462 million in three additional closings bringing the total volume to 623.5 million, which is well above our initial target of 400 million. In order to keep the size of the fund at an appropriate level given the funds investment period, we were unable to accommodate all of the investors that wanted to subscribe in the final closing.
AIPPs attractive portfolio of fund investments in a structure that fits a wide investor base and API IIMs proven track record of indirect investments in Europe are two of the main reasons behind the funds success.
AIPP, which is structured as a Luxembourg FCP, will invest primarily in value-added funds, i.e. funds that both provide a stable income return and offer potential for capital growth, but
will also invest in core and opportunistic vehicles. The aim is to achieve an annualized net IRR of 10-14%, with an annual dividend yield in excess of 5% p.a.
Tomas Otterud, Director of API IIM, said: We are delighted to have received such strong interest with commitments from 27 institutional investors from Portugal, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
We are well underway to building a portfolio of outstanding property fund investments. We have already invested in five funds and are presently evaluating a number of other opportunities where we see interesting investments and strong management teams.
Macquarie Capital Partners Limited acted as API IIMs financial advisor for countries outside the Nordic region.
Source: Aberdeen Property Investors
