Ardian Real Estate has bought its first real estate asset, investing in a multi-let Munich office.
The private investment manager, which manages sovereign wealth and pension fund capital, is focusing on European core-plus and value-added commercial property for its Ardian Real Estate Europe Fund (AREEF).
The deal comes just over a year after it , having recruited Bertrand Julien-Laferri猫re as head of Ardian Real Estate.
Ardian this year hired former Allianz Real Estate chief executive Olivier Piani as an adviser, IPE Real Estate reported .
Ardian, formerly AXA Private Equity and spun out of AXA in 2014, said it was aiming to have 鈧�2bn in real estate assets under management by 2020, with the division being its fifth investment subsidiary.
Julien-Laferri猫re, who previously held roles at Accor, Unibail-Rodamco and Soci茅t茅 Fonci猫re Lyonnaise 鈥� where he was chief executive 鈥� said Ardian was targeting 鈥渉igh-potential office real estate in major cities of Europe鈥檚 core markets鈥�.
The Paris-based firm, he said today, will look to enhance rental income significantly through active asset management.
鈥淲e completed this deal just three months after entering this segment in the German market, which is a great achievement,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he office complex fits in perfectly with our investment strategy.鈥�
Ardian has real estate teams in Frankfurt, Paris and Milan.
鈥淲e hope to announce additional acquisitions in some of the targeted large cities in France, Italy and Germany in the coming months,鈥� Julien-Laferri猫re said.
Assets targeted for the fund will be worth more than 鈧�100m on average.
The Munich asset, the Wappenhalle office and business park complex, includes 33,700sqm of office space and 1,200sqm of warehousing and is let to 24 tenants.
