hopes to benefit from France鈥檚 improved outlook and stability as it expands its real estate investment arm into value-added and development activities next year.
The French asset manager announced today that will have raised 鈧�2.2bn for real estate strategies in 2017 鈥� despite the uncertainty surrounding the presidential elections in the first half of the year.
The fundraising, which will take La Fran莽aise Global REIM鈥檚 assets under management to 鈧�16bn, is yet to reflect its development ambitions 鈥� which took a step closer to realisation in October when it won three sites in the city-wide Grand Paris Project.
All of the capital raised this year 鈥� 鈧�1.2bn from institutional investors and 鈧�1bn through retail channels 鈥� was for core-plus funds and investments.
Patrick Rivi猫re, CEO of La Fran莽aise, told 麻豆映画 Real Assets he expected 2018 to 鈥渂e even better鈥� as 鈥渢here is more visibility鈥� and the company can move forward with its development programme.
The ability to attract Asian capital 鈥� 16% of La Fran莽aise鈥檚 fundraising came from Asian investors this year 鈥� is a case in point. Asian fundraising was mostly achieved in the second half of the year, including the acquisition in October of a large office complex in Brussels on behalf of a club of French and South Korean investors.
鈥淭he first half of the year was difficult to get international investors to invest in the French market,鈥� due to the uncertainty, Rivi猫re said. 鈥淏ut we believe next year will be a very active year for international investors in France.鈥�
The return of international investors to France will be an important factor for La Fran莽aise鈥檚 amibitions to move into development. As reported in October, it hopes to eventually raise 鈧�1bn for its Grand Paris development programme, and today Rivi猫re said he expected most of the appetite to come from international investors.
鈥淭he one issue with value-added product鈥� for French institutional investors, he said, is that 鈥測ou have to invest for three or four years before getting your return鈥�.
France鈥檚 institutional market is dominated by insurance companies. 鈥淭hey are very eager to get a regular return and so for them to invest in product that are not generating revenue for two or three years is very difficult,鈥� he said.
鈥淪o we are expecting more traction from international clients.鈥�
