CAAM Immobilier plans to target institutional investors with tailor-made pooled funds investing in French real estate, in addition to offering a property asset allocation advisory service. The firm is also planning to launch unit-linked real estate funds for insurance companies.
Catherine Lowinger, CAAM’s spokeswoman in Paris, said the new company also wanted to diversify its real estate offering into non-traditional segments such as hotels and care homes for the elderly.
CAAM Immobilier is keen to take advantage of a new type of unlisted property pooled fund, the OPCI (Organisme de Placement Collectif Immobilier), which will be available from 2006. Unlike existing listed French property investment trusts or SIICs, which seek short to medium-term returns, the OPCI is designed as a long-term vehicle free from market volatility.
Michel Pelosoff will be chairman of CAAM Immobilier and Patrick de Lataillade will serve as deputy chief executive officer.
The formation of a new property management business follows CAAM’s recent purchase of a 65 per cent stake in Banca Intesa’s beleaguered fund management subsidiary Nextra Investment Management for $1.1bn (€850m) in cash.
The merger of Nextra with Crédit Agricole’s Italian asset management division makes CAAM the fourth largest investment manager in Europe with more than €430bn of assets under management.
The new entity becomes the second largest fund manager in Italy with €110m of assets under management.
- Bruno Crastes has been appointed chief executive at CAAM in London, following the departure of Ian McEvatt to set up a fund management boutique.
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