The new fund will provide institutional investors with exposure to office, retail and logistics property investments predominantly in the capital cities Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Oslo. The fund will pursue value add investments and targets a net return to investors of 13-14 per cent.

The first close totals EUR 152 million of commitments from four institutional investors and additional capital will likely be secured during the course of the month of June. Genesta is looking to secure a total of EUR 350-400 million of commitments, making this fund roughly twice the size of its predecessor.

Genesta is the first Nordic focused real estate fund manager to be accepted as an AIFM (Alternative Investment Fund Manager), a legal requirement for managers of non-listed real estate funds. As an AIFM in the real estate sector, Genesta is authorized to raise equity in all EU countries and manage non-listed real estate funds.

The new fund builds on the success of Genesta’s first fund, Genesta Nordic Baltic Real Estate, a closed-ended, EUR 176 million, vintage 2007 fund. GNBRE outperformed the IPD Sweden Annual Property Index by 3.1 percentage points and recorded a total return of 10.8% in 2014. The fund is ranked in the upper quartile in the IPD benchmark comparison over 1-year and 3-year measurement periods and in the top decile over a 5-year period.

David C. Neil, CEO, Genesta; “We are delighted to be able to announce the first closing of Genesta Nordic Real Estate Fund 2. Our first fund, Genesta Baltic Real Estate, delivered excellent returns to investors and is now more than 60% divested.”

“The team’s considerable experience of fund and investment management, and strong analytical capabilities makes me confident that we will outperform the benchmark for the new fund and make strong returns for investors. With the creation of the new fund, the Genesta organization will grow and be looking to recruit new people in 2015 and further out.”

Allan Strand Olesen, CIO, who joined Genesta in 2012, will be the fund manager of the new fund. Allan was previously CEO of one of the largest privately-owned Danish real estate investment management companies, with EUR 2.5 billion of assets under management.

Capra Global Partners, the private equity capital markets advisory group, advised Genesta on the capital raise.