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Private equity firm Benson Elliot has raised €800M for a new fund in super quick time, the first fund it has raised since Trish Barrigan took over as managing partner.
Benson Elliot has raised the €800M for Benson Elliot Real Estate Partners V, a pan-European fund targeting value-add returns. The final fund-raising target is around €850M ($1B) according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It will be Benson Elliot’s biggest fund to date.
The fund was only registered with the SEC in April, meaning the overall target is likely to be reached in less than six months. Benson Elliot declined to comment on the fundraising.
As with its forerunners, investors in this vehicle have come from across the globe, Private Equity Real Estate magazine reports. Around 90% of the investors in fund V invested in previous Benson Elliot funds, an indication of the good returns made by these vehicles, which have typically had internal rate of return targets of 14%.
The company raised €625M for its fourth fund in June 2016.
The fund raising is a significant achievement for one of the few remaining independent midsize European real estate private equity firms.
It is also a strong first fund raising at the helm for Barrigan, who took over from Marc Mogull as managing partner in January. Mogull remains actively involved in the firm as executive chairman and chief investment officer.
In February Barrigan outlined the firm’s investment strategy in an interview with Bisnow, saying that offices in Europe look a good bet, due for the need to refurbish obsolete stock. At Bisnow’s Capital Markets event later that month she said the U.K. regions look better value than London right now.
The firm has been a net seller in 2017 and 2018, disposing of assets in Spain, Berlin, the U.K. and a pan-European hotel portfolio and making just one significant investment, a €100M office acquisition in Poland.
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