"The Financial Times": Invel Real Estate will acquire distressed European property.
Beny Steinmetz today launched a $2 billion venture, Invel Real Estate, to acquire distressed European properties through a subsidiary of his private company Beny Steinmetz Group (BSG), "The Financial Times" reports. He hired Chris Papachristophorou, a former head of real estate at Deutsche Bank’s fund management arm, RREEF, to oversee the business.
"The Financial Times" says that the venture will focus on offices and shops in need of financial restructuring or redevelopment. BSG will provide Invel Real Estate with $400 million of start-up capital. The paper quotes Papachristophorou as saying that the company would eschew a traditional private equity fundraising and focus instead on bringing in investors on a property-by-property basis.
"A lot of people want to invest in European real estate at the moment but are concerned by the eurozone crisis and want some clarity on what they are buying. That means two things: they want to co-invest with people who know the market well and they want visibility over exactly which assets they are buying, rather than being in a commingled fund,” he said. p>"The Financial Times" adds that Invel Real Estate is already in talks on six different properties.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 4, 2013
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