Schroders has purchased Blue Asset Management, a real estate investment firm with €1.2 billion ($1.34 billion) of assets, as it seeks to expand its private asset business.
Blue, a Munich-based firm investing in commercial and residential properties, will strengthen the presence of Schroders in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, according to a statement Tuesday from the British asset manager. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Schroders called the expansion of its private asset business a “key strategic priority.” The three founders of Blue — Artus Pourroy, Thomas Wiegelmann and Tino Lurtsch — and the firm’s 17 employees are joining the London-based firm, helping to build out its global real estate group.
“Schroders’ core strategy continues to be to grow our business organically, but we have said we will look at targeted M&A opportunities in core areas of future strategic growth,” said Andy Pearce, a spokesperson for Schroders, via email.
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The firm’s private assets business includes securitized credit, private equity, infrastructure finance, insurance-linked securities, and real estate investing. Real estate is the largest component of the business, with €17 billion under management at the end of December, according to the statement.
“Not only does Schroders have a broad-based global real estate investment team, we also now have access to the wider Schroders group capabilities,” Pourroy, a founding managing director at Blue, said in the statement. That access will benefit the German firm’s clients, he said.
A spokesperson for Blue Asset Management declined to comment on the acquisition, directing all queries to Schroders.
