EXCLUSIVE: Quilvest to invest in more direct RE

Quilvest, the investment business of Argentina’s famous Benberg brewing family, will be making more direct real estate investments while cutting its overall allocation to real estate funds, PERE has learned.

The family office, which made its money from the famous Quilmes beer brand, will begin raising capital for its third real estate fund of funds in September or October, but will allocate 50 percent of this vehicle’s capital to direct investment.

“We are balancing our future program. The second [fund] was two- thirds fund investment and one-third direct, so we have already moved towards direct but now we will be half and half,” said Marc Manasterski, head of Quilvest Real Estate.

Quilvest will mirror its previous fundraising by targeting between $150 million and $200 million for the fund. Its prior real estate fund of funds, QS REP II, beat its target and reached a final close on $300 million back in 2012.

Manasterski added that Quilvest will also be moving down the risk curve, from opportunistic to value-add, on future real estate investments. He said: “We have only recently shifted our strategy towards more value-add in more developed markets because we believe the next three to five years are going to be volatile across the globe.”

He pointed to Quilvest’s UK joint venture with industrial property asset management firm IO and London-based property company Grosvenor – which was announced on Friday – as an example of the family office’s new strategy. The £120 million (€170 million; $187 million) JV will invest in multi-let industrial property in the UK and will be managed by IO.

“Getting together with Grosvenor we see as the first leg of a series of moves to sponsor either asset management platforms or smaller set-ups,” added Manasterski.

IO and Grosvenor have previously worked with together; back in January 2013, the pair launched a JV that bought 14 estates at a combined cost of around £35 million.