Niam concludes €719m equity raise

Niam, the Stockholm-based firm, announced this morning it had raised €719 million for its latest fund, adding it was the largest fundraising it has managed in its series of Nordic opportunistic property vehicles, since the company launched in 1998.

Despite the “challenging” fundraising environment, Niam said it had surpassed its own target of €600 million for Niam Nordic V. Fundraising for the vehicle began in 2010 and Niam declared a first closing in January 2011 of €125 million. Investors in the new vehicle include global public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and financial institutions.

The vehicle is already nearly 15 percent invested with deals sourced through local offices in Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen. 

 “It has been a challenging fundraising environment and we are very pleased with having been able to surpass our own target of €600 million,” said Johan Bergman, chief executive officer of Niam. He added: “We are grateful to both our existing investors who have continued to support us over several funds and new investors who have decided to partner with us due to our track record and real estate experience.”

There has been little capital raising success in Europe in 2012. One fund manager on the fundraising trial who did not wish to be identified said US investors in particular wanted clarity from elections in France and Greece before making investment decisions. The fund manager said that, at the same time several European investors were under instruction to focus on lower risk deals that provide higher yielding, income returns.

Niam said in its announcement on the fund closing it had a track record of having delivered a realised gross leveraged IRR of 31 percent since it started in 1998. It has around €3.3 billion of assets under management through its three funds Niam III, Niam IV and Niam V and the company employs 40 real estate professionals.