The Generali Group announces the union with Axis Retail Partners, a new real estate boutique focused on investments in shopping centers. The Joint Venture allows the creation of a joint venture with two experienced professionals who accumulate a large investment history in this asset class.
This partnership is in line with Generali’s strategy to further increase its Real Estate exposure, where it is already one of the leading investors in the world through Generali.Real Estate.
The European shopping center sector continues to be characterized by its solidity and its fundamentals offer an interesting point of entry to the current market, but requires in-depth knowledge of the industry and specific specialties in order to select the best investment opportunities, manage assets, produce growth of long-term rents and keeping risks under control. The association will be instrumental in achieving those objectives.
In the last ten years the average annual investment in European shopping centers has amounted to 20,000 million euros.
A first fund dedicated to these assets: Generali Shopping Center Fund and which is expected to be launched in the second quarter of this year, once the authorization process is completed, will delegate the management of its portfolio to Generali Real Estate SpA SGR.
Axis Retail Partners is a joint strategic joint venture with Generali that will control 51% of it through Generali Investments Holding SpA. The other partners are Florencio Beccar and Toby Smith, two highly experienced professionals in shopping centers and asset management, with a proven track record
The business model will be based on the strong alignment of interests between the future clients and the investment manager, Axis Retail Partners will advise Generali Real Estate SpA SGR in the selection of investments and the management of the assets of the fund.
Generali will initially invest 500 million euros in the fund, which will be open to third parties to invest in dominant and high-quality shopping centers throughout continental Europe with the aim of obtaining a total annual return of 7%.
