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Top100 Investors

Ranking by European real estate AUM 
October 2017 

The ranking is based on a survey sent to 300 companies over the summer and additional desk research. We have also drawn on rankings by transaction volume, published in March 2016 and 2017. Combining data from these sources has produced a ranking of 250 companies by AUM at end-2016. 

This publication focuses on the Top 100 players with the largest real estate portfolios. The aggregate AUM volume is €1.4 tln – an impressive figure, though there is an element of double counting as owners and managers include some of same assets in their figures. More importantly, the Top100 Investors series, starting with two AUM ranking publications in 2013, tracks the development of the most active investors and managers in Europe. The latest edition features 60 companies rising in ranking compared to the previous ranking based on 2015 AUM.

Swiss Life AM
Swiss Life Asset Managers and AXA Investment Management – Real Assets saw respectable percentage increases of 8.4% and 7.2% as they secured the first and second place for the third consecutive year. Numbers three to six – Unibail-Rodamco, Credit Suisse AM and Deka Immobilien – registered increases of over 30%.

The strongest growth, however, took place in the mid to lower end of the Top100. Primonial REIM and Amundi both recorded percentage increases of over 60%. Listed companies, Merlin, Castellum and Aroundtown, also chalked up 60% growth through a mixture of direct acquisitions and M&A. For the first time in the Top100 ranking, listed property emerges as the investor type with the largest AUM volume, with managers linked to insurers a close second.

The overall growth in the AUM ranking reflects how both institutional and private capital sources are increasingly having to innovate and expand in real estate to generate higher returns, in order to compensate for lower-yielding investments in other asset classes. Swiss Life AM has added a UK firm and a German fund originator to its platform and moved into logistics.

AXA IMRA, already active in all major sectors and markets, raised a record amount of capital in 2016 and is expanding Baytree, a speculative logistics developer. Primonial is building up a pan-European nursing home portfolio, while Amundi has brought new Korean capital to Europe.

It is too early to speak of a Brexit effect as the UK remains the largest market in terms of capital allocation to investment managers in the Top100. However, a combination of divestments, currency changes and exclusion of lending has reduced the UK's volume.

Cormac Mac Ruairi
Editor, Top100 Investors