Akara fund is fully invested and plans follow-up issue
100 days after the launch of the Akara Swiss Diversity Property Fund PK, the fund is already fully invested. Akara Funds AG is planning a first follow-on issue in the second quarter of 2017.
Akara Funds AG launched its first real estate product, the Akara Swiss Diversity Property Fund PK, at the end of October 2016 and has since raised CHF 120 million. Ten properties have been notarized so far, and Akara Funds is in exclusive negotiations and close to notarization for another seven properties. As a result, the company is planning a follow-on issue for the fund in summer 2017.
After completion of the buildings, the portfolio has an investment volume of CHF 140 million and a weighted average initial net yield of 4.9 percent. Eight of the ten properties have an investment volume of CHF 110 million and are existing properties. These include the Galenica building in Urtenen-Schönbühl with a market value of 42 million and an initial net yield of 5.6 percent. Another property will be taken over turnkey by fall 2017. A residential project will be built by a total contracting company and is expected to be ready for occupancy in early 2019.
The other seven properties that Akara intends to acquire shortly have an investment requirement of around CHF 80 million. These are one commercial property, four residential properties and two residential projects.
The Akara Fund is open for subscription to tax-exempt pension funds domiciled in Switzerland and to investment funds whose investors consist exclusively of tax-exempt pension funds domiciled in Switzerland.
Personnel reinforcement in the area of acquisition
Meanwhile, Akara Funds AG has strengthened its real estate acquisition division with Dr. André Nussbaumer and Christian Cadegg. Nussbaumer was most recently active on the management board of the Frutiger Group, where he headed the overall real estate solutions division (2015/16). From 2006 to 2015, he worked as Head of Real Estate Acquisitions at Swisscanto.
Until June 2016, Cadegg worked for ten years, first for Swisscanto and then for Zürcher Kantonalbank as a specialist in the purchase/sale of real estate.
Akara Funds AG was founded in August 2016, the two initiators are Karl Theiler (CEO, Partner) and Jonathan van Gelder (CIO, Partner). Theiler was head of real estate investments at Swisscanto Asset Management AG from February 2008 to March 2014 and was responsible for a real estate portfolio of around seven billion CHF (as of March 2014). Van Gelder was Head of Real Estate Direct Investments at the listed Swiss Finance & Property Investment AG from March 2011 to May 2015.
