AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets (“AXA IM - Real Assets”), a real assets investment and real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, announces that it has raised a record c.€8bn of capital during 2016, the most it has ever raised in a single year and that it has raised c.€800m for AXA CoRE Europe, the pan-European open ended real estate fund which it launched last year.
Total capital commitments were received throughout the year from an increasingly diverse range of small, medium, large third party institutional, as well as retail investors and family offices across the world, as well as from AXA Insurance Companies. Geographically, the capital derived from Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia and was directed approximately 50/50 towards debt and equity investments.
Highlights of the year included:
- A strong first year for AXA CoRE Europe, flagship pan-European open ended real estate fund which received c.€800m of total capital commitments by the end of the year;
- The launch of AXA IM - Real Assets’ first co-mingled infrastructure debt fund, European Infra Senior 1, which raised €900m, continuing the success of its €14bn real assets debt platform which also launched its tenth real estate senior debt fund, CRE Senior 10, having raised c.€1.4bn;
- The final close of Development Venture IV (“DV IV”), the company’s fourth generation development fund, which raised over €600m from 17 global investors across 9 countries, providing it with an investment capacity of up to €2bn;
- The final closing of the Pan-European Value-Added Venture (“PEVAV”) which raised a total of €445m;
- Successes of the two French retail funds, AXA Selectiv’ Immo which raised €750m over the year and now manages c.€2.4bn of assets across Europe; and AXA Selectiv’ Immoservice, launched in June 2016, which raised approximately €180m;
- Approximately €150m raised on AXA WF - Global Flexible Property, an innovative UCITS(2) fund mixing stocks and bonds issued by property companies;
- A €250m increase of a CRE Loan mandate from a major UK pension fund;
- Close to €1bn raised for club deals and joint ventures.
Isabelle Scemama, Chief Executive Officer of AXA IM - Real Assets, commented: “We have had a record year in terms of capital raised, underlining the continued appeal of the real assets sector and the attractiveness of the opportunities we have brought to our clients, which cover the entire Real Assets spectrum via both debt and equity. We also continued to expand and diversify our client base, with a growing number of small and mid-size institutions, a trend that accelerated with the launch of the AXA CoRE Europe fund, which gives them access to a diversified range of high quality pan-European investments.”
“During 2016 and moving into 2017, we made the conscious decision to cap the amount of capital we raised for a number of our funds, as we are cognisant of where the market cycles are in all our various territories and the importance of investing cautiously using our 360o approach to choose the right product and the right time.”
