UBS and Grocon join forces for real estate investment and asset management partnership
An Australian-based, full service real estate investment and asset management partnership has been formed by UBS and Grocon.
UBS Global Asset Management is one of the world’s top five real estate investment managers, and Grocon is one of Australia’s largest private development and construction firms.
The joint venture, based in Sydney, is called UBS Grocon Real Estate. It aims to provide market-leading investment opportunities for investors by combining UBS Global Asset Management's capital raising and real estate investment management capabilities with Grocon's expertise in development and deal origination.
The new entity will support demand from institutional investors for a broad range of fund types and real estate investment products covering core office, residential, and other value add and opportunistic investments.
It will benefit from a first right of refusal over Grocon's development pipeline as well as being able to acquire third party assets in the open market.
John Fraser, CEO and chairman, UBS Global Asset Management, will chair UBS Grocon Real Estate and Daniel Grollo, CEO Grocon, will be a non-executive director. The rest of the board will be appointed in the coming months.
"This partnership forms part of our strategy to strengthen our real estate presence in the APAC region and specifically in the Australian market,’’ Fraser said.
"Securing a partnership with one of Australia’s most prominent developers will allow us to bring the best development opportunities as well as top quality assets to both our domestic and international client base."
Daniel Grollo said: ”This is an exciting opportunity to work with one of the great global brands and one of the world’s largest real estate asset managers. The joint venture will support Grocon’s aim of producing the best investment grade real estate product in Australia."
Thomas Wels, head of global real estate, Global Asset Management, said: "This is an important building block in our global growth strategy. More and more of our growth will stem from partnering with best in class real estate developers to bring the best investment opportunities to our global client base."
UBS Grocon Real Estate is expected to participate in a number of substantial investments over the coming months from within Grocon’s existing $2 billion development pipeline and beyond. This covers significant residential projects, including the next stage of Grocon’s redevelopment of the Carlton Brewery and its redevelopment of 85 Spring Street, both in Melbourne.
UBS Grocon Real Estate is separately exploring potential high quality office investments from Grocon’s development pipeline.