LaSalle Investment Management Acquires Aviva Investors’ Real Estate Multi-Manager Biz
LaSalle Investment Management has acquired U.K.-based Aviva Investors' real estate multi-manager, or REMM, business, along with full ownership of the management of the Encore+ fund. Aviva’s REMM business has $7B worth of assets under management.
Combined with its existing assets under management, the deal will make LaSalle one of the top five largest global non-listed indirect real estate investment managers. It will have combined assets under management of $10B worldwide.
The REMM business will become a new division of LaSalle, headed up by Aviva CEO of Global Real Estate Ed Casal. As part of this acquisition, Casal, who will be based in New York, will also be joining LaSalle’s Global Management Committee.
Aviva Investors is one of the world’s largest asset managers, specializing in real estate, fixed income, equity, multi-asset and alternative investments. It has €404B ($470B) of assets under management in 15 countries in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and the U.K.
The Encore+ fund has been co-managed by LaSalle and Aviva Investors for more than 10 years, with Aviva as the fund manager and LaSalle as the asset manager. The fund is still open to new investors.
Under the terms of the deal, LaSalle will become the sole manager of Encore+ and LaSalle Investment Management Chief Investment Officer of Continental Europe David Ironside will become the fund manager. The fund, which currently has a gross asset value of €1.7B (nearly $2B), was recently recognized as the best-performing fund in the IPD Pan-Europe Property Fund Index for 2017.
Encore+ specializes in Continental European holdings. Currently it has assets under management in France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
LaSalle, the asset management arm of JLL, recently kicked off its LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VIII, seeking $1B for the acquisition of value-add investments. Its previous domestic fund, LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VII, closed last year after raising $510M, 80% of which has already been invested.
