German insurer Allianz has announced plans to combine property specialist, Allianz Real Estate, and fixed income investment manager, Pimco, into a leading real estate manager.
The shares of Allianz Real Estate, which has more than €70bn in assets under management, will be transferred to Pimco to form a real estate manager with €100bn in real estate across Europe, the US and Asia Pacific.
Allianz said the two organisations were complementary, with Pimco’s opportunistic investments and credit in the US and Europe and Allianz Real Estate’s expertise in direct and indirect investments in core and value-add assets across Europe, Asia Pacific and the US.
“This is a very interesting time for those of us at Allianz Real Estate and the alliance is very
balanced for us as we are complementary in what we do,” said Francois Trausch, CEO and CIO at Allianz Real Estate.
“By playing off each other’s strengths, we will be able to do great things in the future. When we match the Allianz Real Estate global footprint and the Allianz appetite for real estate with the unparalleled access to the Pimco intellect, research, analytics, focus on
performance and of course global distribution capabilities we are destined to become one of the world’s most well rounded real estate specialists and alternatives experts.”
The insurance giant is betting that Allianz Real Estate’s scale and network of specialist partners combined with Pimco’s top down investment framework and third-party expertise will create one of the largest real estate investment managers in the years to come.
The move will see Allianz Real Estate transferred from the investment division to Pimco under the asset management division.
Last week, Allianz Real Estate reported that assets under management grew 16% year on year to €73.6bn in 2019.
The real estate manager grew its Asian business 83% YOY to €5.5bn, with deals like the US$1.2bn acquisition of a core multi-family portfolio in Japan and its purchase of a 60% stake in the US$1.17bn DUO Tower in Singapore.
“2019 was a pivotal year both in terms of our AUM growth as well as organization build-out in the region,” said Rushabh Desai, CEO Asia-Pacific for Allianz Real Estate.
“Our success in 2019 reinforces our conviction about the long-term growth potential of the Asia-Pacific region.”