BC Partners Real Estate (BCP RE), the real estate investment arm of BC Partners, has raised €900 million for its debut European value-add fund, BC Partners European Real Estate, exceeding the initial target range of €500-700 million.
“Our investment philosophy is based on the strong conviction that real estate markets across Europe are currently experiencing a paradigm shift,” said Stéphane Theuriau, Partner and Head of BCP RE.
”Demand from both tenants and investors is being fundamentally reshaped by new usages derived from the growing importance of sustainability and digitalisation, which is increasing the need for buildings that match new working and living concepts. This is where we are leveraging our operational experience to reposition existing properties and realise new development projects.”
The fund seeks to acquire undermanaged, well-located assets with significant re-positioning or re-development potential, as well as operating platforms with opportunities to drive greater scale.
The fund has deployed c. 40% of its capital across the UK, France, Germany, and Italy with themes underpinned by ESG initiatives, ranging from post-COVID office assets, residential developments, digitally managed short-stay apartments, logistics and industrial parks, and value-add repositioning of mixed-use assets. With the majority of the fund’s investments having been made post the onset of COVID, they take into account the changed market dynamics in real estate and better reflect the impact of the pandemic on the value and use case for each asset.
“We are incredibly proud of the platform that Stéphane and his team have built, and we look forward to establishing a greater presence in the European real estate market. We are seeing many opportunities created by the dynamic and changing real estate environment, and we believe our team is best positioned to capitalise on these trends,” added Raymond Svider, Chairman of BC Partners. “This strong fundraising result comes shortly after the closing of BC Partners Credit Special Opportunities Fund II at $1.2 billion, exceeding both the target size of $750 million and the initial hard cap of $1 billion and further demonstrates the strength of the BC Partners platform and deep partnership with its strategic investors across asset classes.”
“We are delighted and grateful for the strong support we received from our global base of institutional investors,” commented Alexis Maskell, Partner and Global Head of Investor Relations at BC Partners. “We believe the success of the fundraise highlights the deep asset-level knowledge and strong operational expertise of the BCP RE team, underpinned by the track record of the founding partners in deploying a similar value-add strategy at their prior firm.”
