Tristan Capital closes in on €950m hard cap for Europe fund

The London-based firm run has shot through its target of €750 million for value-added/ opportunistic fund EPISO III and is closing in on its hard cap limit of €950 million.

Tristan Capital Partners, the London-based firm, has surpassed its €750 million ($1 billion) target for its European value-added and opportunistic fund and is closing in on its hard cap of €950 million, PERE has learned.

Tristan, which was launched in 2009 by Ric Lewis as the reincarnation of Curzon Capital Partners, launched European Property Investors Special Opportunities 3 (EPISO 3) in August 2012 and raced to a first close in December last year on more than €170 million.

Since then, according to sources, the company has easily surpassed the overall target of €750 million with more commitments already secured that would take the fund to its €950 million hard cap, making it the third largest European private equity real estate fund to have closed in the past 12 months. New York’s Perella Weinberg Partners and European firm Orion Capital Managers are the only other two firms that have announced larger final closes in 2013.

Fundraising has been making something of a comeback for European opportunity fund managers since tough and volatile economic times from 2009 onwards turned many limited partners off from committing to blind pool funds in the region. However, last week, New York advisory firm Hodes Weill said that fund investment had rebounded across the regions including Europe.

That said, according to one fund formation expert at a New York law firm, limited partners were feeling “muscular” about fund terms even if they liked the manager and were re-upping. According to him, investors were seeking substantive changes in issues such as preferred return hurdles in the waterfall and concessions on management fees.

Tristan declined to comment, though a spokesman for the company said it would make an announcement when the fund closed later this month.

Investors in EPISO III include both existing and new ones for Tristan with the LP base coming from Europe, the US and Asia. In former announcements on the strategy being pursued, the company said it was investing in Western and Central European markets across the office, logistics, retail and residential sectors. The fund’s strategy is to target investment returns of 15 percent net to investors and with a maximum leverage of 60 percent loan-to-value.

The company has a 75-strong team and eight offices in Europe and has almost €5 billion of assets under management.

As well as raising EPISO III, the company has been deploying a core-plus fund, CCP III which is now fully committed. That fund was closed on €420 million in February this year at a time when the company had €4 billion of assets. That means it has added a net €1 billion in less than a year and has raised in total close to €1.4 billion across its two current strategies.

The team includes Ian Laming, chief operating officer, Simon Martin, head of research and strategy, Rui Tereso, head of portfolio and asset management, Cameron Spry, head of investments and Monica O’Neill, head of client relations. It also has dealmakers Daniel Harris, Peter Mather, Ali Otmar, Jose Espinoza, and Sameer Godbole.

Lazard has assisted Tristan as the placement agent on EPISO III.