CBRE Global Investors has captured the number 1 position in the latest ranking of PropertyEU’s Top 100 Investors by total transaction volume.
The ranking measures investment and disposal activity in 2016 and appears in PropertyEU's Top 100 Investors, Deals and Dealmakers publication, which will be sent to PropertyEU subscribers. A limited number of additional copies are available during the Mipim international real estate fair in Cannes in mid-March.
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Tapping into its extensive country network, CBRE GI carried out €4.9 bn of acquisitions and €2.9 bn of disposals, with 40 deals of €20-plus mln in 13 countries, on behalf of its direct business and CBRE Global Investment Partners (CBRE GIP) during 2016.
‘These transaction volumes illustrate the successful year we had in both fund raising and capital deployment. Our value-add strategy saw significant acquisitions throughout Europe of which the largest three deals were in the UK, Iberia and Scandinavia. The largest deal for our core pan-European strategy was an industrial portfolio in Poland and Germany,’ said John Mulqueen, CBRE GI's head of EMEA transactions.
25% decrease compared to 2015
The achievement is significant given that the €7.8 bn transaction volume represents a 25% decrease on the €10.4 bn booked by CBRE GI in 2015 which gave it the number 2 spot in the previous dealmakers ranking behind Blackstone’s €15.7 bn deal tally. That ranking for 2015 was based on a bumper 12 months when €320 bn of European real estate changed hands.
Overall spend in 2016, according to data partner Real Capital Analytics (RCA), dropped to €265 bn, not least because uncertainty created by the dual spectres of the US elections and the Brexit referendum caused many potential buyers to take a wait-and-see attitude.
The top 10 investment managers in the 2016 ranking transacted just under €60 bn in total compared with €77 bn for the first 10 in 2015. The names at the top have also changed: aside from Blackstone and QIA, missing from the latest top 10 are Klépierre and Vonovia (who owed their positions in 2015 to one-off mega company takeovers), Lone Star and Aviva Investors.
The trend towards lower spend, combined with a lack of verifiable data in some cases, resulted in several heavy hitters, including Blackstone, the previous number 1, moving down the 2016 ranking. This allowed other investment managers to climb and for new names to emerge.
The ranking is based on data gathered up to mid-February via our Top Investors survey, press releases and RCA's database. A data partner for the second year, RCA has provided additional volumes information, enabling the Deals and Dealmakers publication to increase its coverage and to profile 250 investors and investment managers active in Europe.
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