Managers

Exclusive: Revetas Capital holds first close

The central Europe specialist is said to have raised one third of its €200 million target, with all investors in its original fund re-upping

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Revetas Capital, the specialist central European economies real estate investor, has held a first close for its latest fund.

It is said that Revetas held the close two weeks ago for Revetas Capital Fund II, which launched towards the end of last year, and that one third of the €200 million target for the fund has been reached so far. It has an overall hard cap of €300 million. It is also said the company is in exclusive talks to buy a first portfolio for the new fund.

Sources added that all of the limited partners from the first fund have re-upped for Revetas Capital Fund II which is a follow up to Revetas Capital Recovery Fund I focused on over-leveraged, distressed and under-performing property opportunities in central Europe.

The core central European countries Revetas is targeting remain the same as that first fund – being Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. However, the strategy is no longer only “distress” as Revetas is pursuing income-producing assets held in capital structures that sponsors wish to exit.

Revetas was established in 2009 by Eric Assimakopoulos and is backed by several high caliber investors including Jeremy Isaacs, who became Lehman Brothers' chief executive officer for Europe and the Middle East in 1999 and additionally was named chief executive of the Asia-Pacific region in 2000. He was credited with building up the investment bank’s international operations, before moving on to found JRJ Group a private firm that focuses on making investments in financial services companies, as well as Johannes Huth who is head of KKR in Europe middle east and africa

Assimakopoulos, a New Yorker, built the Gnome Group Inc in the US from a small design and build business into a data centre developer across the US and Europe during the mid-1990s. In 1999, he then partnered with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds to create Metronexus, a technology driven real estate fund where he was chairman and chief executive officer. In 2002, he launched Bifrost Investment Group, the predecessor to Revetas Capital, into a leading CEE investment and asset manager. It has offices in London, Guernsey, Vienna, Bratislava, Bucharest and Krakow.