Aberdeen raises debut RE secondaries fund

Aberdeen Asset Management’s debut real estate secondaries fund has been oversubscribed and has reached its €300 million hard-cap.

Aberdeen European Secondaries Property Fund of Funds reached its hard-cap two months before its official closing date in September. The fund received its first round of equity commitments in February, raising €151.5 million from investors.

Those to have backed the fund include Swedish pension Första AP-fonden (AP1) and the Korea Scientists & Engineers Mutual-aid Association. Aberdeen itself backed the fund too.

Andrew McCaffery, global head of alternatives at Aberdeen, said: “The secondaries market is particularly attractive with an increasing number of opportunities, with investors becoming more active in the management and composition of their indirect property portfolios.”

The fund is already 38 percent committed in eight investments that are exposed to more than 200 European properties, according to the firm. The majority of these investments had been sourced from investors seeking to re-balance their portfolios as a result of strategic shifts or changes in regulation, such as those relating to Solvency II and Basel III.

The firm said these factors would enable it to generate value-add returns for what is described as stabilised and de-risked portfolios. “Our detailed knowledge regarding the funds in which secondary units are traded, and the size and depth of the team, puts us in a strong position to be able to analyse opportunities within a short timeframe.”