Property investment company East Capital Real Estate (ECRE) plans to set up a new investment fund in the Baltic states, with assets estimated at around €400 million, ECRE’s Head in Latvia, Māris Smiltenieks, told LETA.
He said the fund is expected to become active in 2026.
“The fund is being created so that ECRE’s assets can be involved in new commercial property acquisition processes,” Smiltenieks explained.
The plan for the new, fifth fund does not differ from ECRE’s core strategy, which focuses on the Baltic countries.
“Potentially, we could add another region, but that is just a possibility for now,” he added.
According to Smiltenieks, the new fund’s investment financing strategy is likely to remain unchanged – 50% equity and 50% bank financing.
The total value of commercial real estate in ECRE’s portfolio currently exceeds €600 million across all three Baltic countries, while the total investment volume over the years is close to €1 billion. Smiltenieks explained that ECRE establishes real estate funds and invests in commercial properties, which it manages, develops, upgrades, and eventually sells.
Over the past 20 years, ECRE has created four investment funds and successfully sold one of them – the second fund. The assets of the first fund in Latvia have also been sold.
ECRE currently holds assets in two funds in Latvia. The third fund includes the Galerija Riga shopping center and two logistics parks near the airport – Lidostas Parks and Ulmaņa Parks – with a combined area of just over 40,000 square meters. The fourth fund includes the Place Eleven office building on Sporta Street, the Rimi distribution center on Deglava Street, and StokOfiss at 30 Ulbrokas Street.
The total value of ECRE’s Latvian portfolio currently stands at €221 million, Smiltenieks said.
“All our funds are closed-end, which means that at some point a fund must exit its investments. Currently, the third fund is the closest to such an ‘exit phase’, which is planned for the second half of next year,” Smiltenieks noted.
Asked about the investors in ECRE’s funds, Smiltenieks said they are mostly institutional investors, including pension funds and other investment funds. In the fourth fund, for example, the vast majority of investors are from Germany, while the third fund includes international and Baltic-based institutional investors. Overall, ECRE’s funds have investors from Scandinavia, Germany, and the Baltic states, he said.
Source: BNS
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