AXA Real Estate Investment Managers, Europe's leading real estate manager with EUR 39.9 bn of assets under management, has raised on behalf of its clients a total of EUR 1.26 bn in the first quarter of 2011. Of this amount, EUR 800 mln has been raised as segregated accounts from third party investors and AXA Group clients, reflecting a growing trend from investors seeking separate mandates,

In addition, AXA Real Estate has raised a total of EUR 460 mln for two of its pan European institutional investment vehicles, Development Venture III and its debt fund, Commercial Real Estate Senior 1, launched in January this year.

The EUR 800 mln of new equity for segregated accounts has been derived from new and existing investors across Europe, including France, Switzerland and the Nordics. With over EUR 29 bn of separate accounts under management as at December 2010, AXA Real Estate claims it ranks respectively nr 1 and 2 globally for its advisory and discretionary mandates activities.

Kiran Patel, Global Head of Business Development, Distribution, Research & Strategy, commented: 'The strong momentum we have achieved in securing new equity from investors this year is a strong endorsement of our barbell investment strategy and our ability to tailor products specifically for investors’ individual needs. The fact that we have seen such strong interest from investors in both our debt and development funds in particular, reflects the increasing appetite since the start of this year for funds with strategies across the entire risk spectrum. Both of these funds are aiming to secure final closings before the summer. This will allow us to offer a new range of products which are innovative in structures, as well as investment strategies, not just covering Europe, but more further afield, Asia and US, thus building on AXA Real Estate’s plans to offer a global product offering.'

Patel said he expected to continue to see strong capital raising momentum for the remainder of the year, based on discussions with investors in Europe, but also Middle Eastern and US investors looking to deploy capital in the global markets.