INTERNOS Global Investors Limited (INTERNOS), the owner-managed real estate fund management firm, has been appointed by British Land to provide fund advisory and asset management services to the Pillar Retail Europark Fund (PREF). This brings funds under management at INTERNOS to €4.1 billion.
PREF is a Luxembourg-based, closed-ended FCP established in 2004, currently backed by British Land and a selection of institutional investors. PREF owns 10 retail parks in Spain, France, Portugal and Italy with a collective value of €230 million. As part of the integration of the management of the Fund, most of British Land's personnel in Spain and France have transferred to INTERNOS.
This is the eighth fund manager replacement mandate for INTERNOS since its formation in 2008 and grows INTERNOS’s AUM to €4.1 billion. This latest mandate follows a period of sustained growth in INTERNOS’s European business in 2013. Over the past six months, it has acquired Commerz Real’s €1.6 billion real estate Spezialfonds business; has been appointed investment manager of Local Shopping REIT plc; and held the second close of its Hotel Real Estate Fund with €210 million of equity.
It has also won two further mandates: one, to manage a French portfolio for a Swedish pension fund and the other, from the Saxony Doctors Pension Fund in Germany (Sächsische Aerzteversorgung ‘SAEV’), to invest up to €200 million in value-add European hotel real estate.
Commenting on the appointment, Jos Short, Executive Chairman at INTERNOS, said: “This appointment by British Land is a great endorsement of our pan-European investment management platform. We look forward to maximising returns for investors at this point in the European real estate cycle.”
Matt Walker, Head of Fund Management at INTERNOS, commented: “We have been appointed with a clear mandate from British Land to undertake intensive asset management measures ahead of progressively selling as markets recover. We have considerable experience in managing and transacting retail parks with a current portfolio of more than 100 retail properties across several continental European jurisdictions.”
Source: Internos
