The pan-European €6bn investor, fund and asset manager has appointed Eastdil Secured to consider its corporate options.
As well as a sale of the whole business it is also looking at forming new strategic partnerships with third parties, a partial sale, a listing or remaining in its existing structure.
M7, led by chief executive Richard Croft (pictured above), has grown exponentially in recent years and has doubled its assets under management in the past 12 months.
It has teamed up with a selection of heavyweight capital partners since its formation including the likes of Goldman Sachs, Oaktree Capital Management, H.I.G., Kwok Family Interests and Starwood Capital.
Its largest current partner is Blackstone, with which it is building up a substantial light industrial platform. The pair’s largest buy to date was the €1.3bn acquisition of Hansteen’s European assets last March.
In addition to managing segregated mandates it has also raised a series of co-mingled funds and has significant co-investment and assets on its own balance sheet. Last November it completed the €400m raise of its largest fund to date, M7 European Real Estate Investment Partners IV.
Founded in 2009 as a light industrial specialist, M7 has steadily diversified into the office sector.
It has 18 offices in 13 European counties, employs 200 staff and manages more than 90m sq ft of space across more than 1,000 assets.
The decision by the M7 partners comes at a time of frenzied M&A activity in the European real estate fund management sector.
Since November last year, Patrizia has bought Triuva and Rockspring, Principal Global Investors has bought Internos, Alony Hetz Properties and Investments has bought into Brockton, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets has bought GLL Real Estate Partners and Candriam Investors Group bought a 40% stake in Tristan Capital Partners.
There are a number of different drivers for these deals.
For investors, gaining exposure to the real estate market and deals through platforms rather than buying direct assets is considered prudent by some in a market that many consider to be late cycle.
For larger, acquisitive fund managers, offering a broader range of products may also be considered a major advantage as clients are increasingly demanding a broad range of investment options but with only a handful of trusted managers.
Some smaller fund managers are being pushed towards merging because of the weight of increased regulation. There have been instances of companies having done deals in order to solve successions issues, while others are looking to take cash off the table having started their businesses post the financial crisis and ahead of any possible correction.
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