Ærium launches CHF 1 billion Swiss real estate fund (CH)

Ærium, the real estate investment and management group, ("Ærium" / the "Company") announces the successful launch of two institutional real estate funds (the 'Funds'), focused exclusively on the acquisition of investment and development property assets located in Switzerland.








Tellpark

Tellpark shopping center in Schattdorf, Switzerland.


The funds have raised equity from a number of European, US and Middle Eastern pension funds, institutional investors and hedge funds, providing an immediate investment capacity of CHF 1 billion (approx. €620 million).

The Funds' skill and ability to source attractive real estate investments across Switzerland relies on Ærium's large and firmly established local network of resources and history of transactional experience in the market. This has been further supported and consolidated by the opening of a new office in Geneva in June 2008 and the appointment of Brieuc de Crombrugghe to head up a strong team of specialist property advisors, including Mr. Di Pietrantonio's strong 20-year real estate development expertise.

Having invested circa CHF300 million to date, the fund manager, Ærium, has already made its first acquisitions on the Funds' behalf.

Recent acquisitions of note include:

  • The newly built Tellpark Shopping center in Schattdorf
  • The Winterthur shopping center Grützepark anchored by Migros
  • Mars AG's headquarters building in Zug
  • An office building in the centre of Geneva let to FIPOI
  • An office building in Montreux multi-let to UBS and GE.

Ærium continues to actively seek out investment and development opportunities in office buildings, shopping centres, retail warehousing, light industrial and logistics centres across the country, in which it will deploy the remaining capital.

The Funds build on the track record of Ærium's 12 previous funds, comprising of those fully realized, fully invested and those with capital available for investment, representing over EUR 8 billion in real estate assets. Of these, the two funds which are fully realised have delivered IRR's (Internal rate of return) of between 28% and 35%.

Brieuc de Crombrugghe, Managing Director of Ærium's Geneva office, commented, "The Swiss real estate market offers international investors the opportunity to generate a strong regular cash flow with the potential for capital growth, which, combined with the current economic environment, characterised by limited debt finance and a practical standstill in investment flows, provides a large number of value-enhancing investment opportunities to explore in the region.

"Switzerland provides a prime example of a country where the property market has remained stable during this period of economic volatility. Utilizing our local market knowledge wide-ranging network of contacts and the successful track-record of our previous funds, we look forward to building our business through acquisitions of direct property and by offering financial services, such as sale and leaseback."

Franck Ruimy, CEO of Ærium added, "The opening of our new Geneva office demonstrates our commitment to the market and ensures that we have on-the-

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