Acofi raises €700m for real estate debt strategies

French fund manager Acofi Gestion has raised €700 million since July last year, which it is aiming to deploy across the largest eurozone markets by late 2018.

Christophe Murciani, head of CRE debt funds at Acofi, told Real Estate Capital the firm has raised the capital “across different strategies which don’t overlap, including several mandates and a fifth property debt fund”. He declined to specify the split of capital for each debt strategy.

The firm deployed around €300 million in 2017, while a “healthy pipeline” of almost €500 million is projected to be deployed this year, mainly in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.

Acofi is currently focusing on value-add strategies within the office segment, which offers positive rental prospects amid an advanced property cycle in Europe, Murciani said.

“Due to their risk-return profile, we favour value-add strategies, understood as a reposition of offices in liquid markets, such as Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, he said.

Murciani also noted Europe’s logistic sector is another “interesting” strategy to deploy debt from a risk-return perspective.

“There’s a big consolidation drive in the logistics sector; finding a local player that identifies smaller portfolios with a build-up strategy would be a good opportunity,” he said.

In September last year, Acofi launched its fifth property debt fund, with a fundraising target of €600 million by July 2018.

Acofi’s latest vehicle follows a similar strategy to the firm’s previous property senior debt vehicles. It can be invested across all types of properties and in its neighbouring countries, with a focus on France, where the firm’s property debt business targets at least 50 percent of its loan book.