Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) says that it has completed more than €2.5 billion in transactions globally in 2020, including c. €2.1 billion in Europe and c. €457 million in Asia.
Globally, transactions included nearly €1.7 billion of acquisitions and €833 million of disposals, resulting in a net investment of €842 million, says Savills IM.
The firm now manages approximately €21.2 billion (over $25 billion) in assets under management (AuM), a company record.
“The impacts of COVID-19 are unfortunately continuing into 2021, but they will subside. If investors can see through the short-term effects of the pandemic, then they can leverage longer-term themes to their advantage. There are opportunities in market sectors showing greater resilience, such as logistics, residential and food retail. Given the lower-for-longer interest rate environment, the yields available in real estate are even more attractive,” said Kiran Patel, Global CIO and Deputy Global CEO, Savills IM.
“These opportunities are best identified by experts on the ground with strong local knowledge, which is why we place so much importance on our network of 17 offices in 13 countries,” he added.
Savills IM completed 74 transactions across 14 countries in 2020, 8 of which exceeded EUR 100 million. Highlights include the acquisition of the Łódź City VI logistics park in central Poland, marking a new strategic partnership with Kajima Properties; a logistics complex in Ansbach, Germany, on behalf of European Logistics Fund 2; and a portfolio of 38 supermarkets in Denmark.
The firm has focused on rebalancing its business towards more resilient sectors, launching new, pooled and discretionary products that are recession resilient. This includes VESALF I, a discretionary pan-European logistics fund, and the European Food Retail Fund, which focuses on the one retail segment in which investors are looking to increase rather than decrease their exposure, according to Savills IM’s Outlook 2021 survey.
