Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) today announced that Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP) raised $370 million in commitments for Morgan Stanley AIP Phoenix Global Real Estate Secondaries 2009 LP (Phoenix), a fund dedicated to acquiring secondary interests in opportunistic and value-added private equity real estate funds. The capital raised exceeded AIP's initial $250 million target.
"This successful fund-raising effort against a challenging market backdrop is a testament to the strength of our investment team and our differentiated investment strategy and process," said Jacques Chappuis, Head of AIP. "We believe that demand for comprehensive expertise in real estate investing combined with the team's fiduciary background, direct real estate transactional experience and unique access to a substantial flow of secondaries transactions contributed to the strong response we saw from institutional investors globally."
The objective of Phoenix is to target off-market secondary opportunities in private equity real estate funds that have a sustainable strategy for generating superior returns across real estate cycles, an emphasis on strong real estate fundamentals and in-depth knowledge of local markets.
"For the first time ever, investors in private equity real estate funds are selling significant interests in the secondary market, and as a result, we are finding tremendous opportunities to acquire high quality assets at attractive valuations," said Joseph D. Stecher, Head and Chief Investment Officer of AIP Real Estate Fund of Funds. "We are focusing on best-in-class small- to mid-size fund managers globally as we seek to capitalize on several distinct advantages of investing in the secondary market, including the ability to avoid start-up costs and fees, accelerate investment programs and shorten time for realization, and effectively value underlying asset portfolios."
AIP's Real Estate Fund of Funds team, based in New York and London, has a wide range of hands-on experience in private equity real estate investing, property acquisition, development and management, real estate equity and debt financing, workouts, and the real estate public equity markets.
AIP is the fund of funds division of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. AIP manages portfolios of hedge funds, private equity funds and real estate funds for some of the world's largest institutions and high net worth individuals. AIP has offices in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania; New York; San Francisco; Atlanta; London and Hong Kong.
MSIM, together with its investment advisory affiliates, has nearly 1,000 investment professionals around the world and approximately $266 billion in assets under management or supervision as of December 31, 2009 1. By leveraging its global ‘community of boutiques' structure and the strength of Morgan Stanley, MSIM strives to provide outstanding long-term investment performance, service and a comprehensive suite of investment management solutions to a diverse client base, which includes governments, institutions, corporations and individuals worldwide.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 37 countries. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.
1 Amount excludes certain asset management businesses following the decision to sell the Retail Asset Management business to Invesco.
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