Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement to acquire TMW Immobilien AG in Munich, Germany, and TMW Real Estate Group in Atlanta. PREI is the real estate investment and advisory business of Prudential Financial, Inc.
“We are delighted to welcome TMW’s highly regarded management teams in Germany and the U.S. to our company,†said Charles Lowrey, CEO of PREI. “This combination with TMW, one of Europe’s leading real estate investment managers, capitalizes on the respective strengths of each organization and strengthens PREI’s position as a global asset manager. Additionally, this new alliance complements and expands PREI’s longstanding activities in Europe handled through PRICOA Property plc.â€
As part of the transaction, ERGO Trust and Provinzial Rheinland Versicherung, TMW’s largest shareholders and investors, both based in Düsseldorf, will participate in a joint venture with PREI and TMW’s management shareholders to develop real estate investment products specifically tailored to TMW’s clients in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. ERGO is a subsidiary of the ERGO Group, Germany’s second-largest insurance group.
The combination will give both companies the scale to offer clients a broader range of possible transactions, thereby increasing the number of potential investment opportunities worldwide. Additionally, the transaction gives PREI the opportunity to offer products to a new audience of German institutional, retail and high net worth individual investors. TMW’s core investment approach also complements PRICOA’s value-added strategy.
TMW chose to combine with PREI after conducting a search for an international partner that could help it expand globally and continue to increase the scope and quality of its investment products. The structure of the combined entities will allow TMW to maintain and improve its longstanding relationships with leading German institutions. The combination will also expand PREI’s global network of offices outside of the U.S., which
includes the U.K., Germany, Belgium, Singapore and Brazil. TMW has offices in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland and Switzerland, in addition to its offices in Munich and Atlanta.
“In PREI, we’ve found a partner with a strong commitment to building a truly global business, in which local presence and identity are respected as the basis of an efficient, client-oriented investment approach,†said Georg von Werz, a founding partner of TMW. “Together, we can build a business that offers our clients sophisticated real estate investment products and advisory services worldwide.â€
In the U.S., Thomas McWhirter, the U.S. founding partner of TMW, will lead a portfolio management team that will focus on TMW’s existing German-based accounts specializing in core investments. The team complements PREI’s existing portfolio management team, which is largely concentrated on open-end commingled fund activities and discretionary single-client accounts.
TMW’s current senior management, including the two founding German partners, von Werz and Klaus Trescher, will continue to lead TMW from Munich, focusing primarily on its traditional German clients and European product development. Also in Europe, Richard Plummer will continue in his role as chief executive of PRICOA Property plc, PREI’s long-standing Europe-wide real estate investment firm headquartered in London. TMW and PRICOA will each focus on serving their respective clients’ needs, investing in European property using a newly created shared platform—PREI Europe.
PREI Europe will coordinate investment transactions and asset management activities through a joint PREI European Management Committee.
TMW, one of the largest independent real estate investment managers in Europe, managed total assets of $6.6 billion as of June 30, 2002; net assets under management (i.e. after deduction of associated debt and liabilities) were $3.3 billion. Established in 1982, TMW offers a full range of real estate investment products
