Heitman Raises over 500 Mln Euro for CEE Property Fund - Media

The Chicago-based fund manager has raised $750 million (507 million euro) of equity for Heitman European Property Partners IV, which held a first close last September with roughly 380 million euro of commitments from a range of American and European institutions, PropertyEU (www.propertyeu.info) said.

Major investors in the vehicle include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) with an equity injection of 75 million euro as well as Danish property company ATP Real Estate with a further 75 million euro. Heitman will plough 15.5 million euro into the fund.

The vehicle, which has a three-year investment period, will have the firepower to acquire up to 1.3 billion euro of property with leverage. It was set up to develop, reconstruct, acquire, own and manage real estate in CEE as well as Russia and Ukraine.

"Today's challenging property market conditions throughout the world make this an attractive climate for investment," PropertyEU quoted Heitman's managing director Gordon Black as saying. "We believe such opportunities exist across Central and Eastern Europe and we are pleased to have been able to raise this level of capital commitments to take advantage of this historic opportunity."

Heitman is a real estate investment manager active in the U.S., Europe and Asia with $19.6 billion in assets under management.

($=0.677 euro)