Paris-based Amundi, Europe’s biggest asset manager with €1.9 trillion in assets under management, is launching Amundi Commercial Real Estate Loans II (ACREL II), the second vintage of its senior mortgage fund.
The fund is targeting a final size of around €600 million.
Amundi CEO Valerie Baudson has also said the asset manager is on the hunt for new M&A deals after completing the integration of its French rival Lyxor in just nine months.
“The fund offers professional investors exposure to an asset class that is resilient through cycles, providing diversification and relative value in the current environment, notably through floating rate returns,” said Amundi.
“The strategy of this new vintage extends that of the ACREL I fund, which raised €443 million from leading European institutional investors and built a diversified, resilient portfolio while outperforming the investment objective with constrained risk.
“The stock-picking model will continue to emphasise safety, diversification, non-financial criteria (ESG) and relative value.”
Bertrand Carrez, Head of Credit Real Estate Debt at Amundi, said: “With this successor fund ACREL II, we aim to offer investors indirect exposure to real estate that will be both resilient and offer a high relative value, building on the success of the first vintage which demonstrated the depth of our market access, as well as the robustness and agility of our management model.”
Amundi CEO Valerie Baudson recently told analysts the group had the opportunity to “look closely at everything for sale” after reporting €1.2 billion surplus capital in 2022.
“On the M&A we have the opportunity to look at close to everything which is for sale,” Baudson said.
“We have three main focuses, the first one is to make sure that any acquisition is actually accelerating our organic growth, which is always the priority.
“It could be a question of developing more quickly in some countries – why not in Asia? It could be about developing some expertise as was the case with Lyxor.
“It could be developing a new network as was the case with Sabadell, it could be in technology and services as well as it is a full part of our strategy.”