News and Press releases

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management’s CER III Fund, which had its first close in July as CRIM’s maiden pan-European residential vehicle open to international investors, has attracted its first commitment from outside Germany with €40 million from France’s Primonial REIM. The fund is targeting at least €1.0 billion in investments across European residential real estate markets, from an initial launch with €50 million in seed capital from a German pension plan, which also made a top-up of €20 million.

Catella Logistic Europe, established 18 months ago in partnership with Thierry Bruneau, delivers its first two logistics buildings. The buildings are located in Troyes-Moussey and Cholet, the two warehouses are leased for 9 years to the logistics provider LOGTEX, specialized in fashion, luxury and e-commerce.

Mattias Nilsson is a new portfolio manager at Catella. But he is not new to the industry and, with his solid experience, is a very good addition to Catella Fonder’s fund management team. We took the opportunity to interview him about his background, his views on hedge fund management and the upcoming reporting period.

After a large post-summer slide, Sweden now has negative interest rates. A Swedish ten-year government bond is at -0.2 percent, while the ten-year US treasury has fallen to 1.7 percent after having been over 3 percent. Sweden’s Riksbank governor Stefan Ingves has battled to raise inflation, which is about 1.5 percent. This means that a “parked” investment that should be really secure generates a negative return of around -1.7 percent after inflation. What can you do in a market like this? The fixed income managers for Catella Hedgefond and Credit Opportunity, Stefan Wigstrand and Thomas Elofsson, spend their days thinking about just this.

Catella acted as Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company’s advisor in the sale of the Syke shopping centre in the Lahti city centre. The buyer is Osuuskauppa Hämeenmaa cooperative.

My two-day business trip to Skåne begins with a visit to Lindab in the town of Grevie on the beautiful Bjäre peninsula. Lindab is an international industrial group that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes products and system solutions for construction and indoor climate.

Availability of real estate financing improved despite uncertainty in the global markets The main index of Catella CREDI of the Q2 2019 survey reached 53.4 surpassing the level of 43.4 reached in the CREDI survey of Q4 2018. This indicates an improved sentiment for the real estate debt market especially during the past six months. The availability of real estate financing has improved during the last six months and is expected to improve slightly during the next six months. Similar trend can be detected in the credit margins of real estate debt, which have improved during the past six months and are expected to improve eve more during the next six months.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) has launched its Catella European Student Housing Fund II (CESHF II), with approximately €100 million in capital commitments from institutional investors at a first close. The fund is expected to invest up to €250 million across European markets in the next two years. Its first acquisition is an apartment building  in the German city of Mannheim for about €38 million. CESHF II’s second close is planned for the first quarter of 2020.

Catella acted as Pegasos Real Estate Ky’s advisor in the sale of an office and production property located in Pitäjänmäki to Conficap Oy.

Catella Property Investment Management establishes Catella Hospitality Europe (CHE), in partnership with Pierre-Louis Bellanger, Rodolphe Frégé and Maxime des Monstiers, in order to address the fast growing hotel investment market. The company will assist investors in sourcing, structuring and managing tailored hotel investment opportunities.

CORESTATE Capital Holding S.A. (CORESTATE), a leading independent real estate investment manager in Europe, has acquired a student housing and micro apartment complex in Cologne-Deutz for the special BVK-Residential Europe real estate fund of Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK). BVK is one of the largest institutional investors in Germany. The core property under development has a total investment volume of approx. EUR 60 million. The sales process on the seller side was structured and controlled by Catella Property.

Catella European Residential I (CER I), launched in 2007 as the first institutional property fund to invest specifically in residential assets across European markets, has raised €90 million in just one day from existing investors. Berlin-based investment advisor Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) will place the capital in new segments of the rapidly growing real estate ‘Living Sector’ in France and Spain and extend the fund’s geographical reach to additional markets like Austria.     

Global stock markets are hanging in the balance. There are plenty of clouds, including weaker macro indicators, trade wars and Brexit. Will we slide into recession, as many believe?

With a rise of more than 20 percent for the Stockholm stock exchange, the first half of 2019 was the best in 10 years. 

Making judgments about the future calls for a large dose of humility. I would guess that most portfolio managers, particularly value-oriented ones, have asked themselves: Why are valuation differences so extreme? What is underlying this? What needs to happen in order for the valuation differences to return to what has historically been normal? Or is it, to use the words many call the most dangerous phrase when it comes to the financial markets, different this time?

Investment market remains very active During the first half of 2019, the total transaction volume in Finland amounted to 3.0 billion euros. The corresponding volume of 2018 was 3.9 billion euros. The market has remained active with the total amount of transactions decreasing slightly compared to last year. Foreign investors’ interest in the Finnish market has remained strong, and foreign investors’ share of the total transaction volume amounted to 49 per cent.

Catella acted as Ålandsbanken Residential Property’s advisor in the sale of two modern residential properties in the HMA. The properties comprise in total 87 apartments. The buyer is AEW on behalf of a German pension fund.

Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM) the largest pan-European platform investing in the real estate Living Sector, has acquired a development of 100 apartments and a supermarket in Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, as well as a senior living property in the eastern German city of Dresden, for a total of about €30 million.

Catella acted as OP Life Assurance Company Ltd’s exclusive financial advisor in the divestment of a historic landmark office property in the heart of the Helsinki CBD, at the address Eteläesplanadi 12. The buyer of the property is Union Investment Real Estate GmbH.

The Munich-based capital management company Catella Real Estate AG has completed the first sale from the special fund "Catella MAX" with the sale of the mixed-use property "Pasinger Triangel" in the Munich district of Pasing. The buyer is German life insurance company the LV 1871 (Lebensversicherung von 1871 a. G. München). Catella Property GmbH acted as intermediary. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Catella Wohnen Europa, the pan-European residential fund advised by Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM), has entered its 10th market in Europe with the acquisition of a portfolio of over 300 apartments across Finland for nearly €80 million. Catella Asset Management Oy acted as a local partner for the buyer.  

After spending a few days cleaning up my old childhood home, I was intensely reminded of how things change over time. We really did have a manual typewriter when I grew up. I also reflected on how the era of a standalone caller ID beside the phone was short-lived, and that the once-essential bank passbooks now feel like a memory from a terribly distant age. Bill Gates once said, "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction."

Catella acted as the seller’s exclusive advisor in the sale of a local shopping centre in Eastern Helsinki. The buyer is Evli Rental Yield fund managed by Evli Fund Management Ltd.

Catella acted as Tradeka-kiinteistöt Oy’s advisor in the sale of a hotel property in Helsinki. The buyer is Fastighets AB Balder.

The Catella European Residential Fund III, launched in March 2019, has completed a first close and secured a maiden investment in Copenhagen, passing initial milestones towards a target €1.0 billion total investment volume. The Fund, managed by Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM), is the first Luxembourg-based pan-European vehicle allowing international investors access to a geographically diversified portfolio of assets in the residential sector. The two earlier CRIM funds were structured for German institutional investors.

Frankfurt, 27.06.2019 – The former office district of Niederrad becomes a hot spot for working and living with short distances in the middle of the city. The Living Lyon project was completed on schedule by Catella yesterday. The tenants of the 2- to 3-room apartments can move in on 1 July as promised. The project is almost fully let before completion; only a handful of apartments are still available.

Catella acted as Investors House’s advisor in the sale of a hotel property in the Pori city centre. The buyer is Evli Rental Yield fund managed by Evli Fund Management Ltd.

Catella acted as the seller’s advisor in the sale of an XXL retail property located in Oulu, Finland.

'In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.'Neville Chamberlain

The chart below shows US and European credit spreads and the S&P500 stock index for the past year. The movements track each other well, which is perhaps not surprising since stock markets and credit markets make reflective assessments of corporate cash flows.

Forestry is one of Sweden's most traditional industries, and today's ever-growing demand for sustainability is gradually turning the sector into an experimental workshop for modern technology.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH (CRIM), the Swedish Catella Group’s investment manager focused exclusively on the residential asset class, has acquired a total of almost 300 apartments in three transactions for an individual mandate for a southern German pension fund. The properties are located in Aarhus in Denmark, in Tilburg in the Netherlands and in the HafenCity district of Hamburg in Germany. The total purchase volume comes to approximately EUR 117 million. Institutional Investment Partners (2IP) is acting as the financial investment management company (KVG), while CRIM is responsible for managing the portfolio.

It is half day on the Stockholm Stock Exchange on wednesday May 29th. This means that the stop time for orders of purchases and sales in our funds is at. 11:00.

The Catella Mordernes Wohnen (CMW) fund, advised by Catella Residential Investment Management (CRIM), has acquired a property on the Côte d’Azur in Nice for EUR 11.5 million. The CMW fund focuses on modern forms of living in European growth regions. Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG) acts as KVG.

The project developers of QUEST Investment Partners have acquired Emmler Lofts in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. The property was sold by FORTIS Real Estate Investment GmbH, whose exclusive consultant was Catella Property GmbH. It has been agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The office and retail property with a rental area of around 5,000 sqm is located at 25-26 Kottbusser Damm.

The Garpenberg mine is situated in the municipality of Hedemora, in one of the oldest mining areas of Sweden still in operation. Ore extraction in the Garpenberg area began as early as the 13th century, and in the 14th century German miners were engaged to improve the mining techniques and make them more efficient. The locals called the Germans ‘garpar’, which later gave the town of Garpenberg its name.

The current economic cycle has been going on for a long time, and global growth has slowed somewhat. Interest rates have again fallen to almost non-existent levels, while the stock exchanges began the year with a surge. In Sweden, the krona continues to fall.

Catella applies various management processes and strategies, depending on the product. We have a fundamental approach, and conduct our analysis from a sector perspective. With our actively managed long-only equity funds, Catella Sverige Aktiv Hållbarhet and Catella Småbolagsfond, our teams work closely together to analyse companies, trends and themes in the Nordic stock markets. The fundamental analysis of large and small companies is conducted in a similar way, with the main difference being the consideration of liquidity risks for each company. To be able to justify a higher liquidity risk in a small company, this risk must be reflected in a greater potential upside for the share.

The traditional way of looking at portfolio diversification, with equity exposure being combined solely with bonds, has provided a fantastic risk-adjusted return for many years. But with interest rates at record lows and stock markets nudging all-time highs, there is good reason to think afresh.

It is half day on the Stockholm Stock Exchange on Tuesday April 30th. This means that the stop time for orders of purchases and sales in our funds is at. 11:00.

There are often trends on the stock exchange, and right now spin-offs and streamlining are in vogue. We have seen SCA spin off Essity, Atlas Copco spin off Epiroc, Autoliv spin off Veoneer and Kinnevik distribute MTG shares. More recently, Maersk has spun off Maersk Drilling, Schibsted has spun off 35 percent of Adevinta, and MTG has spun off Nordic Entertainment.

Thursday April 18th, it is half day on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. This means that the stop time for orders of purchases and sales in our funds is at. 11:00.

POLIS Immobilien AG has acquired an office and service centre of around 33,000 sqm in the city centre of Gera. The acquisition was part of an asset deal. The seller is TLG IMMOBILIEN AG, Catella Property brokered the sale. 

Online retailing is taking an ever-greater proportion of Swedes' total spending, and companies that focus on the internet are being rewarded with much higher growth than those sticking to physical stores. Will regular stores disappear completely, and if so, when? In this month's podcast, Catella Fonder has brought together a number of analysts with expertise in this area to provide an overview: Carnegie's retail analyst Niklas Ekman, Catella Fonder's portfolio manager Anders Wennberg and Sandra Gadd, Business Development Director at Boozt.com.

At the beginning of the year, Catella Fondförvaltning AB (Catella) made a decision to coordinate the management of Catella Hedgefond and Catella Nordic Long/Short Equity into a single team. This was to increase synergies and to take another step towards an even more market-neutral and well-diversified management style.

It is always darkest before dawn, an expression that can in retrospect describe the conclusion of last year and the beginning of 2019. During the late autumn and, to a greater extent, all the way into the Christmas holiday, the financial markets were dominated by a strongly negative sentiment, with economic worries exacerbated by a continued belief in monetary policy tightening. The preferred interpretation was clearly negative, and 2018 closed on a low note. With the first quarter now over, we can instead look back on an absolutely fantastic start to the year, with almost all the worries blown away – at least when it comes to stock market performance.

Catella acted as an advisor to FinCap, when it sold two care properties. The properties were divested to Evli Healthcare I Ky.

I fielded a question at an investor meeting this week: “What should you do when your gut feeling says the stock market cannot rise any further but the interest rate on deposits is still zero?” I think there are many of us who can feel these reservations. The big underlying issue is how we feel about the economy. Is this just a pause or are we heading for a fall, and in that case how steep a fall? Economic fluctuations are tricky. They rarely come when you expect them, and they are even more rarely calm and rational since the market constantly overreacts. And both Brexit and a trade war are lurking in the shadows, reinforcing the uncertainty. Nonetheless, the stock market has been exceptionally strong at the start of the year and it is difficult to find good alternatives to shares when interest rates are so low. So, what should we turn to if we have that gut feeling the questioner expressed at the seminar?

Catella Fondförvaltning AB today publishes the funds' annual report for 2018. 

After a gloomy end to 2018 the new stock market year has begun very strongly. The US Federal Reserve has taken a softer stance and there are positive signals from the US-China trade talks. The reporting season was largely as expected, with an absence of negative news, and a Fed statement was enough to lift the stock market, say Catella's equity fund managers.

The Catella Nordic Long Short Equity (RC) hedge fund had a tough time last year. It fell by 13.8 percent and underperformed both the Nordic stock index and global hedge fund indexes. Although the fund has demonstrated a positive return of almost 32 percent since its inception in December 2010, and an average annual return of 3.6 percent over the same period, Catella Fonder decided to realign the fund's strategy and management in January 2019.

A large exposure, and a long-term holding that we have highlighted before, is care company Ambea. Since the company has just completed its acquisition of Aleris and reported for 2018 alongside its sector colleagues Humana and Attendo, it feels natural to look forward to 2019 and the coming 2020s.

Catella advised Alfred Kordelin foundation when it sold the courthouse property in Seinäjoki to Trevian Finland Properties I.

Catella Market Indicator has been published; Third strong year for property investments in a row During 2018, the Finnish real estate market continued on a strong note. Transaction volume eventually climbed up to EUR 8.9 billion, which is the second highest volume of all times. Weakening economic growth and general  uncertainty regarding the future have not yet reflected on the property market, and activity is  expected to remain high also in 2019.

The equity market has begun 2019 strongly after a gloomy end to last year, but in large parts of the world there are signs of weaker growth. The question is whether this is a temporary blip, caused by inventory build-up, or whether a longer decline is on the way.

Catella has during recent years gradually developed its portfolio management with increased focus on sustainability and absolute return strategies. The performance outcome in 2018 did not live up to our expectations and we are not satisfied, especially in the case of the fund Catella Nordic Long/Short Equity. Therefore, we will carry out a number of changes in our portfolio management by reallocating resources within the portfolio management team.

“It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” Karl Kristian Steincke

Jack Bogle of Vanguard once said, “Half the time, I wonder why I have so much in stocks, and other times I wonder why I have so little.” The quotation rather neatly sums up the past year, but also investment decisions in general.

After several years of stable growth, global financial markets once again demonstrated their idiosyncrasy, and one word sums up 2018: Challenging.

Catella advised Polaris Pensionsstiftelse when it sold its residential property in Lauttasaari to Asunto Oy Helsingin Lahnaruoho, which is a company owned by Asuntosalkku Suomi, Nordic Business Investments and Diretor.