| PE Funds Focusing on Real Estate, In U.S. and Abroad The U. S. "We think there's a growing demand for rental properties," WL Ross vice chairman Jim Lockhart told Buyouts last month. India's property sector, too, is attracting the attention of the industry: More PE capital went to real estate than to any other industry in India in February 2012, business newspaper Mint says. The fund is tapping into a widely held belief in the PE industry: that renting is poised to become more popular. And PE firms aren't confining their real estate investments to the U. A New York-based fund, GTIS Partners, operates an $810 million fund focused on the Brazilian real estate industry; it aims to capitalize on the rapid growth of Brazil's economy. Fortress Investment Group, which manages more than $40 billion, not only took a servicing company public this month but is in talks to buy part of Ally Financial's Residential Capital division. It's not just large PE players that are making moves in the real estate industry. And Cerberus Capital is angling to buy another of Ally's mortgage units, Buyouts magazine reported at the end of March. – a PE company with more than $8 billion under management – last year bought Deutsche Bank's loan-origination arm . and overseas, however, private equity investment dollars are returning to real estate in force (we noted this in an article several months ago). "You will get more than what you put into Brazilian real estate," GTIS president Tom Shapiro enthused to Forbes magazine in March. Waypoint buys as many as five homes a day, with the goal of converting them into rentals. Witness, for example, the recent upswing in PE deals involving mortgage servicers or originators. With green shoots cropping up in the U. As property markets in the developed world enjoy a gradual recovery (and as select foreign countries continue to post strong GDP growth), investing in both properties and real estate financing firms should remain red-hot. |
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
PE Funds Focusing on Real Estate, In U.S. and Abroad
