Portugal 
Spain 
Greece 
The Carlyle is back and it’s looking at hotels
22 February, Il Sole 24 Ore
The renewed dynamism that the Italian real estate has been experiencing in the last couple of semesters has summoned also some investors that had previously walked away.
It’s the case of the American fund Carlyle which in the last few years had decided to pause its investments in Italy, after a period of great activity concerning residential development and requalification operations.
Now, Carlyle is back shopping in Italy, acquiring in December 2017 five logistic assets, on behalf of the funds the company is an advisor for, through two separate transactions. One asset has been bought by a European investment fund, while the other four have been acquired by Prologis. These are properties located in Northern Italy and are 90% occupied. The transactions have been concluded for a value rumoured to be around 100 million euro.
This is not the last operation, as the company clarifies.
“It’s out intention investing again in Italy – says Marc-Antoine Bouyer, Carlyle Europe Real Estate managing director – the country plays a crucial role in our strategy in Europe”. Bouyer has arrived at Carlyle after having worked for three years for Blackstone, another real estate investment giant with a good presence in the Italian territory. His objective is to study an investment strategy at European level.
“We continue to pursue a series of strategies in the UK and European real estate market focusing on sectors led by demographic trends and new consumption behaviours, we also take into account the ways of managing and using the property”, says Bouyer.
The company has at the moment assets under management for about one billion euro in Europe, adopting a strategy of investing based on the opportunity. The manager continues: “Our mandate is flexible, we don’t have an asset allocation to define on a geographic basis or pre-defined amounts to invest”.
Concerning Italy, Milan is still the best choice in terms of real estate opportunities. Concerning the sectors, besides logistics, the company is evaluating also the hospitality sector, especially in big cities such as Milan, Rome, Florence, and Venice. But the company is looking also at healthcare, an asset class which is growing.
Currently, the Carlyle property funds manage over 10 billion euro, mainly concentrated in investments in the United States (in the residential and commercial segments), in Europe and in Asia. Throughout the last ten years, Carlyle has been the fifth most active fund in the real estate sector at global level with investments for 12.5 billion.
“Carlyle Europe Realty Fund is a limited liability fund set up to invest strategically in real estate assets and related companies “– states the company – “mainly in the UK, France and Germany, besides Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Netherlands pursuing an opportunistic investment strategy”.
According to rumours, the Carlyle European real estate fund would be currently raising capitals.
Source: Il Sole 24 Ore
Translator: Cristina Ambrosi