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UK: SOROS PILES UP �1BN FOR EURO PROPERTY CAMPAIGN.
Property Week
1 Mar 2000
Hungarian financier hires DLJ to raise funds to target European corporate and portfolio acquisitions.
Billionaire financier George Soros is building up a '2bn (�1.25bn) war chest for a concerted push into the European property market.
Soros Real Estate Investors CV managed by Richard Mully, now head of European investment at the real estate arm of Soros Fund Management, will lead the push into the property sector, following Soros's move away from risky hedge fund investments.
As part of this move Mully is working with Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette's real estate private fund group headed by Christophe de Taurines and Ray Terrafranca, to raise a further '800m (�500m) from its network of high net worth private investors.
With Soros investing a further EUR200m (�125m) of his own funds, the EUR1bn (�623.5m) of equity will be geared up to EUR2bn (�1.25bn) for an aggressive expansion which is likely to focus on the listed European property sector. The opportunistic Soros Real Estate Investors fund is likely to target European property through corporate acquisitions, large portfolio deals from listed companies and further investment in the quoted self-storage sector.
Speaking at the Real Estate Opportunity Fund Investing Forum in New York this week, Mully told delegates that Europe offered far greater opportunities for investors than the US, where property 'looks overpriced'.
Mully said that the move to a single currency and the removal of trade barriers would boost demand for property in Europe over the next five to 10 years. Mully was unable to comment on any of the details of Soros Fund Management's association with DLJ.
Since Mully took control of Soros's European real estate strategy, the fund has focused on self-storage and European leisure. In the UK it has invested in Safestore, Delancey Estates and outsourcing specialist Mapeley.
Soros, whose $8.2bn (�4.94bn) Quantum fund forced the UK government to leave the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, has concentrated on less risky investments since the announcement in May of losses on technology stocks and the departure since of several leading hedge fund managers.
PROPERTY WEEK 30/06/2000 P100
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