AXA Real Estate Investment Managers, the leading real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, announces that, at the final close of its most recent pan-European real estate debt fund Commercial Real Estate Senior 9, it has raised €2.9 bln, making it one of the largest CRE senior loan funds in Europe. AXA Real Estate has also been awarded a separate £350 mln (approx. €498 mln) commercial real estate debt investment mandate from a major UK pension fund which brings its total real estate debt platform to €11.3 bln, of which €1.8 bln was raised in the last six months and €9 bln has already been invested.
CRE9 is AXA Real Estate’s most recent co-mingled real estate debt fund for European institutional investors and the first to incorporate a German feeder fund issuing rated notes to German regulated institutional investors with €350 mln as part of the final close.
CRE9 is also the first real estate debt fund, launched by AXA Real Estate, structured to allow for capital to be recycled back into the fund once loans have matured. This allows investors to seamlessly maintain their allocation to AXA Real Estate’s debt platform in order to benefit from the attractive risk adjusted income returns it targets.
With an initial target of €2.5 bln, CRE9 has exceeded expectations, having received commitments from 18 institutional investors, across the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Switzerland. Capital was originated predominantly from insurance companies and pension funds, welcoming a few new investors, underpinning the continued interest in the asset class, as well as AXA Real Estate’s leading position within the field.
AXA Real Estate was the first non-banking institution to enter the European real estate debt market in 2005, and has raised €3.4 bln since September 2014. With the platform now standing at €11.3 bln, AXA Real Estate maintains its position as the most advanced and largest debt platform among any real estate investment managers active in this market in Europe. The CRE debt platform investments are currently predominantly diversified across four main territories being the UK (43%), France (26%), Spain (17%), and Germany (9%).
