Germany's Union boosts new real estate commitments 50% in 2012

Union Investment Real Estate, the German cooperative bank property investment group, acquired new binding institutional capital commitments and subscriptions of some €1.5bn last year up 50% from 2011. It expanded its product range for pension and insurance groups and added new products for church investors, foundations and cooperative banks.

Union Investment said it won subscriptions of €620m last year for the institutional open-ended vehicles UniInstitutional European Real Estate and UniInstitutional German Real Estate. The latter, primarily designed to meet the investment needs of churches, cooperative banks and foundations, was particularly noteworthy and within five hours was oversubscribed by a factor of more than three on the launch date of 17 October. In anticipation of the high level of interest, the capital inflow was deliberately limited to ensure a broadly diversified investor base; each investor was capped at a maximum subscription of €2m.

For real estate funds dedicated to institutional investors, the group in 2012 acquired some €960m in capital commitments. Of this, commitments of around €850m were accounted for by individual mandates on behalf of pension funds, banks and insurance companies, while €110m came from new and follow-up subscriptions to existing funds.

Commenting on last year, Christoph Schumacher, member of management at Union Investment Institutional Property, said in a statement: "We have not only further enhanced our broad range of solutions for pension funds and insurance companies, but also addressed the investment needs of church investors, foundations and cooperative banks."

He sees Union Investment’s institutional business set for further growth in 2013. "We believe there are excellent opportunities to expand our market position, especially with regard to thematic funds and pooling vehicles." Union Investment currently has assets under management of some €3.5bn across its institutional real estate products. The entire real estate arm manages around €20bn in property assets in Germany, Europe and worldwide. pie

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