Resolution closes fund at £300m(2)

Resolution Property, the pan-European private equity real estate firm, has raised £300 million ($482 million, €378 million) for its latest opportunistic fund.
 
Resolution, which hit the fundraising trail in 2013 with an initial target of around £650 million, has attracted commitments from global institutional investors plus a number of family offices from the US, the Middle East and Europe. Following the final closing, the firm said its deployable equity totals more than £300 million, comprised of committed discretionary fund capital and co-investment from its limited partners. 
 
A spokesperson for Resolution said: “Resolution used this fundraising to broaden its investor base out to state and corporate pension plans and sovereigns. Our new investors guided us to a smaller, more targeted fund with a quicker turnaround and more scope for co-invest.” Hodes Weill acted as exclusive placement agent and financial advisor on the capital raise.
 
The equity haul provides the London-based company with firepower to assemble £800 million of assets via Resolution Real Estate Fund IV, with £310 million already has been assembled for the vehicle. The fund’s strategy is to target mixed-use city center projects, shopping centers and outlet centers in major European cities as well as office and residential opportunities in London and major UK cities. Overall, the fund will concentrate primarily on the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Poland.
 
Investments include Department W, a media center and residential re-development near the future Whitechapel Crossrail station in London; the Great Northern Warehouse retail, leisure and entertainment center in Manchester; and Poznan City Centre, the dominant retail center in one of Poland’s biggest cities. Resolution also recently announced Fund IV’s latest acquisition, the Designer Outlet Soltau located between Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover in Germany.
 
Resolution was founded in 1998 by Robert Laurence and an investment team from UK property company Argent Group. Its second fund closed in 2004 on £330 million (€492 million; $600 million), but it nearly doubled the size for its follow-up effort at the end of 2007 as it closed on €808 million. The firm historically has been backed by US limited partners such as Hewlett Packard and Stanford Management.