Union Investment has announced that it will be putting a major focus on real estate transactions in the US over the next several years.
“Having been active in the US for 30 years, we have reconfirmed the US as our main target market outside Europe in our strategic planning. Over the next three to five years, with the help of our investment advisors Metzler Real Estate, we intend to invest up to $ 2 billion in the US growth markets on behalf of our global real estate funds,” said Dr. Frank Billand, Chief Investment Officer and Member of the Management Board at Union Investment.
After acquiring the trophy building 555 Mission Street in San Francisco in 2012 and entering the Texas real estate market with the purchase of Research Park Plaza III & IV in Austin in 2013, the investment manager is currently preparing additional investments in outperforming locations in the US.
Managing real estate funds with a total of $32 billion, the Hamburg-based company has a local office in New York and has recently repositioned its US team with Martin Bruehl as new principal representative for the Americas, underlining the new dynamics in its North American investment activities. Having entered the US market as one of the first German open-ended real estate funds in 1985, Union Investment’s portfolio in the United States currently includes nine office and warehouse properties with a market value of $2 billion.
Despite strong worldwide investment demand for property in 2013, Union Investment was able to invest its high capital inflows into a total of 31 property acquisitions worldwide worth some $ 3 billion. Alongside the high purchase volume, the investment team also sold 19 properties with a total value of just under $ 1 billion.
Source: Union Investment
