The PERE 50 countdown
A closer look at which managers made the cut (and how they got there)
The PERE 50 is back, and it’s a more expensive club to join than ever before.
The minimum amount of capital raising required to gain entry this year was $2.57 billion, up about 6 percent on last year and a whopping 80 percent on five years ago, when the ranking covered only 30 rather than 50 firms. At the top end of this year’s ranking is the $20 billion-plus club, with now three firms having amassed such a massive equity haul. Similarly, the number of managers that have raised more than $10 billion in the last five years has grown from four to seven.
To find out who those managers are, along with the full ranking and our methodology, click here.
Now, we approach the end of our countdown with the managers filling out ranks 10-6…
10- Tishman Speyer
$6.86 billion
HQ: New York
Founded: 1978
Tishman Speyer’s HQ
Over the past five years, Tishman Speyer has raised nearly $1.5 billion in equity from its three commingled real estate funds, including the $534.54 million, 2016-vintage Tishman Speyer European Real Estate Venture VII, the $346.23 million, 2013-vintage Tishman Speyer Brazil Fund III and the firm’s newest European property offering, Tishman Speyer European Real Estate Venture VIII, which was launched in September and has collected $608.4 million to date.
The bulk of the New York-based developer and fund manager’s $6.86 billion equity haul over the past half-decade, however, has come from 18 co-investment and discretionary separate accounts that have netted a total of $5.37 billion, most recently $53.6 million for European Co-investment 5 last year.
9- GreenOak Real Estate
$7 billion
HQ: New York
Founded: 2010
biggest fundraise
The private equity real estate business of former Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing bosses Sonny Kalsi, John Carrafiell and Fred Schmidt goes from fundraising strength to strength. From 12th place last year, the firm continues to rise on the back of efforts for its soon-to-be-closed third US fund, GreenOak US III. Tipping $1.6 billion by last January, the fund, GreenOak’s biggest since its formation in 2009, further establishes the firm as one of the biggest opportunistic real estate investors Stateside. Smaller propositions, but also popular with investors, are the firm’s European and Asian series. In both regions, the firm has evolved from offering country-specific propositions to tabling pan-regional vehicles. GreenOak Asia II collected $655 million at final closing in March 2016, while GreenOak Europe II reached $718 million at the time ranking was compiled.
8- AEW Global
$7.85 billion
HQ: Boston
Founded: 1981
The most recent qualifying capital raised by the Boston-based real estate investment manager came for its AEW Senior Housing Investors III fund, a US-oriented value-add vehicle through which the firm intends to buy retirement residential properties. However, the biggest contributor to AEW’s standing remains LOGISTIS, a logistics-focused operation periodically capitalized. Its equity was last increased in November 2015 to $1.91 billion. The platform was implemented in 2012 and consists of three funds; the latter two qualify for inclusion. Other inclusions are AEW Partners VII, the latest of a US opportunity fund series which started in 1988, and AEW Value Investors Asia II, the first Asian fundraise under the leadership of the firm’s Asia head, David Schaefer, who joined three years earlier.
7- Pacific Investment Management Co
$10.10 billion
HQ: Newport Beach
Founded: 1971
Asset management goliath Pimco takes seventh spot in the PERE 50 ranking on the back of its last two PIMCO BRAVO Funds. In March 2014, the firm raised $5.5 billion for Fund II and followed that with a smaller, but still meaningful, $4.6 billion raise for Fund III in November 2017. The November final closing meant that Pimco pulled in more than $2 billion in just six months. The final closing was also completed a good $600 million over the upper ceiling of the firm’s initial fundraising target of $3 billion-$4 billion. The hard-cap was $5 billion, according to documents from the New Mexico State Investment Council, which committed $100 million to the vehicle. Pimco is using the capital to fund real estate and “speciality finance investments,” according to Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory filings.
6- GLP
$10.67 billion
HQ: Chicago
Founded: 2009
GLP saw meaningful raises in China and Europe last year. At the end of December, the firm raised $1.5 billion for GLP China Value-Add Venture and almost $1.3 billion for GLP Europe Development Partners I. For the former, it raised the money with the intention of adding the acquisitions of standing assets to the funding of developments. The vehicle was backed by insurer China Life.
In Europe, the fundraise is expected to capitalize the development pipeline of Gazeley, the logistics developer the firm acquired from Brookfield just months before. Investors will see their capital plowed into more than 16 million square feet of buildable land in the region. GLP is spreading its wings to include infrastructure and private equity fundraises in future, which will not count toward its PERE 50 standing. But these are in addition to, not instead of, fundraising for warehouses, so expect GLP to remain in a lofty position in rankings to come.
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