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One of Europe’s most successful real estate investment managers is set to raise a major new fund after its purchase by a Singaporean conglomerate two years ago.
The news comes as Aermont Capital’s owner, Keppel, said it was taking lessons from Aermont on how to run a lean and successful investment business.
In its 2024 full-year results, Keppel said Aermont is preparing to start raising equity for its sixth opportunity fund, following successful investments for Aermont Capital Real Estate Fund V.
That fund raised €3.8B (£3.15B) of equity in 2022. The new fund is likely to have an equity target that is the same or larger.
One of the most significant investments for the company's fifth fund was the purchase of Spanish data centre firm Nabiax at a price reported to be around €1B. One of Keppel’s ambitions when it bought Aermont was moving in to the European data centre sector.
Keppel, which has interests in real estate and infrastructure around the world, will pay around £800M for Aermont in a phased transaction that is set to complete in 2028. The price could vary based on the performance of Aermont’s funds.
In a call with analysts, Keppel CEO Loh Chin Hua said the integration of Aermont was progressing well, adding that the new parent had learned a lot from its acquisition.
“We now have this challenge, in that our board now says, ‘Aermont is so much more efficient in terms of the number of people versus the size of funds under management,’” he said. “So, you know, I think these are things that we can learn. It is not always the acquirer imposing on the acquired. Sometimes, the acquirer can also learn from the acquired.”
Aermont had about £14B of assets under management when Keppel made the first part of the acquisition in December 2023. It plans to grow that figure to £35B.
One of its best-known and most successful acquisitions was Pinewood, the listed film studio owner it took private for £326M in 2016. The studio is where franchises like James Bond and Star Wars are filmed.
Aermont raised £3B of new equity in November 2022 to recapitalise and expand the business where Disney, Netflix and Amazon have long leases.
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