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The Australian firm is seeking to take over the management of 'orphan funds' and has created a property joint venture with Lloyds Bank
Valad Property Group is looking forward to building its "orphan fund" management business, which takes over the management of funds whose previous portfolio managers have been rejected by disgruntled investors and bankers. In April the Australian company won the first major piece of this business, and is now looking after the assets of European Commercial Real Estate - formerly known as Kenmore, a UK company.
The vehicle is a euro250117 portfolio of 53 properties in the Nordic region, Germany and the Netherlands. Valad secured a five-year mandate to provide investment management services for the mixed commercial portfolio. The fees are similar to the previous mandate and include performance fees for value creation.
Martyn McCarthy, Valad's chief executive officer, Europe, says: "There are a number of funds out there, with big portfolios that are not being looked after the way they should be. We call them Orphan funds', for which the banks appoint new managers. I think we are well-positioned to take on a lot more of this type of work across our business. And we are looking to expand our staff numbers."
According to McCarthy, the company won the mandate because it has extensive geographical coverage across the regions in which the real estate is located and has local asset-management capabilities.
Valad has four offices in Germany, six in the Nordics and one in the Netherlands, and die staff report to the European headquarters in London. In all, the company has 20 offices with 250 staff across the whole of Europe reporting to London. McCarthy says: "Our managers range between the ages of 40 and 63 and have mostly been with us a long time.
"Valad manages the funds' capital from London, while the real estate is managed locally," says McCarthy. "We have more than 8,500 tenants and we invest a huge amount of money in software to manage their needs." Each asset tends to average around ten tenants.
The company is one of the largest in its niche, and manages a euro4.700 multi-let...