US based Carlyle Group has raised €2.2bn (£1.7bn) for a third European real estate fund, and with leverage, will have up to €9bn (£7.1bn) to spend.

Carlyle said the fund, called Carlyle Europe Real Estate Partners III (CEREP III), will be Europe’s largest private equity fund dedicated to real estate investment.

The fund was raised against an initial target of €1.5bn (£1.18bn). It has already committed €715m (£567m) to 10 assets


€9bn to spend
It said with leverage, its pan-European team of 46 people will have maximum funds of around €9bn (£7.1bn) to invest across the UK and continental Europe.

Carlyle Group now manages $10.8bn (£5.5bn) in ten real estate funds across the world, including €3.4bn (£2.7bn) of assets under management in Europe.

All property sectors

In Europe and the UK it invests in assets across all property sectors of more than €25m (£19.8m) It said the total anticipated capitalisation of the global real estate portfolio is €20.3bn (£16.1bn) which includes committed equity and debt, of which €8.6bn (£6.8bn) is in Europe.

Robert Hodges, Carlyle’s head of UK real estate and European asset management, said: ‘The volume of funds raised allow us to continue our efforts in the UK where we see a growing number of investment opportunities in today’s market.

'We plan to expand our London and regional office portfolio of developments. It will also allow us to seize opportunities in other sectors such as high quality retail assets where we believe value can still be created.’

In the UK Carlyle is in the process of buying three shopping centres for more than £300m from the Mall fund.

Topics