German real estate business Blue Asset Management is being acquired by global investment manager .
The Munich-based company, which has 鈧�1.2bn assets under management, will join Schroders鈥� 拢15.6bn (鈧�17.7bn) real estate arm.
Blue founders Artus Pourroy, Thomas Wiegelmann and Tino Lurtsch and the company鈥檚 17 employees will join Schroders.
Schroders said the acquisition would consolidate its presence in the German, Swiss and Austrian real estate markets where it already has 鈧�4bn in assets under management and a team of over 40 people.
Duncan Owen, global head of Real Estate, said: 鈥淭his acquisition provides us with a strong team of real estate professionals and an additional office in Germany, which is the largest real estate investment market in continental Europe.
鈥淭he strengthened footprint across Germany, Austria and Switzerland will complement our existing teams across Europe and our wider global real estate platform. This expanded team will help us support the active management of new investments and existing funds for clients.
鈥淭he fundamental investment principles and value-add style of Blue, as well as our similar cultures, are central to why Schroders has acquired this business. It will be a good fit for all of our clients.鈥�
There will be no changes to the management of existing clients of Blue, which will continue to be served by the Blue management team.
Managing director Pourroy said: 鈥淣ot only does Schroders have a broad-based global real estate investment team, we also now have access to the wider Schroders group capabilities which I believe will enable us to significantly enhance our client proposition.鈥�
Schroders said the acquisition of blue was 鈥渟ignificant step in growing鈥� its private assets business, which includes private equity and infrastructure finance.
