The Carlyle Group Raises €430 / $545 Million European Real Estate Fund

Paris, France – Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced that it has completed the final closing of its European real estate fund, Carlyle Europe Real Estate Partners at €430 / $545 million to invest in real estate across Europe.

The Carlyle Europe real estate team was established in 2001, and has already made 15 acquisitions of properties with the fund in France, Germany, Italy and the UK including the Jupiter portfolio of 36 properties in Italy in 2003.

Eric Sasson, Carlyle managing director and head of the Europe real estate team, commented on the closing, “We are delighted to have completed fundraising, and the team has already made excellent acquisitions and developments in Europe. I am very positive about the future property climate for us and our ability to expand our investment activities in Europe.”

The team has a proactive and highly selective approach to acquisitions and asset management investing in both existing structures and land for development. The fund focuses on a single asset approach looking at offices, retail and industrial and logistics centres in the €20 to €80 million asset class.

“We plan to make 20 to 30 acquisitions over the life of the fund, and to hold investments for around five years. We have already invested €280 million of the fund, and we will complete our first exits from current investments in 2004. With our proactive approach and active portfolio management, I believe we are in a strong position to take advantage of the increased interest in the property markets,” continued Mr. Sasson.

The real estate team of 22, including acquisition and asset management professionals, is based in offices in Paris, Milan and Frankfurt. The fund focuses on France, Germany and Italy as primary target markets, and will also consider investing in Spain, the UK and the Nordic countries.

In 2003, Carlyle completed the acquisitions of 107 Cheapside in London, an 11-storey office building in Dusseldorf, two office buildings in Paris (the headquarters of the Continent Insurers and Imprimerie Nationale) and the Jupiter portfolio of 36 properties from Italy’s Ministero dell’Economia e delle Finanze, one of the most significant real estate acquisitions of the year in Europe.

# # #