Corestate charts growth by going public

The Zug-based private equity real estate firm intends to raise €100 million via its own IPO and to use the capital raised to do more, and bigger deals.

Corestate Capital, the Zug-based private equity real estate firm, is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) on the regulated market segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Corestate intends to raise around €100 million via a free float of over 50 percent of the company through the issue of new shares authorized by a capital increase and the sale of existing shares.

Corestate intends to use the expected proceeds to increase the number of transactions and to execute higher volume transactions.

Corestate manages real estate assets on behalf of institutional investors with a focus on residential and commercial property investments throughout Germany.

The plans to list itself are the latest in the firm’s attempts to adopt alternative strategies to those of many fund managers. For example, last year, Ralph Winter, founder of Corestate, said the firm has moved away from the traditional fund format and adopted a deal-by-deal approach in a reverse of the strategies of typical managers. Winter said firm has set its stall out to invest in an “anti-cyclical” manner in Europe and expand its club-style deals from purely opportunistic to core-plus and value-add investments.

Back in February, Corestate formed a joint venture with Madrid-based asset management firm Inmobiliaria Espacio and its sister company OHL Desarrollos, a property development company. The JV will see Corestate and OHL co-invest their own equity alongside selected investors in Spanish properties via club deals and separate accounts.

Last month, the firm also named Sascha Wilhelm as chief executive officer. Wilhelm was formerly the chief operating officer (COO) of Corestate and is a member of its investment committee.

The chief executive’s seat had been vacant at Corestate since Phillip Burns left the firm in October 2013. Thomas Landschreiber, co-founder and chief investment officer, had been overseeing Burns’ responsibilities after his departure.