Catella announced the strategic merger of the front office operations of its subsidiaries Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH, Berlin (CRIM) and Catella Real Estate AG, Munich (CREAG) to form Catella Investment Management GmbH (CIM). The merger aims to create a stronger fund investment management platform for enhanced operational efficiency, effective from January 1, 2025.
Catella Residential Investment Management’s and Catella Real Estate AG’s clients will benefit from this strategic move, as they will now have access to a more robust, multi-sector front office managing and advising assets worth €10 billion across more than 25 funds with properties in 15 different countries across Europe. The unified business will possess enhanced capabilities in sharing resources and developing new products, ultimately leading to improved services.
“I am proud that we are now taking this step to combine the expertise and resources of CRIM and CREAG front offices, where we reinforce our common strength as one face to the market. Historically, CRIM and CREAG stem from the same company, and this merger enables a more efficient fund Investment Management platform with close to 150 dedicated professionals”, said Timo Nurminen, Head of Investment Management at Catella.
The merger between CRIM and property-related activities, such as asset and portfolio management of CREAG, aims to create a more efficient and streamlined fund investment management platform by combining their expertise. In the course of this restructuring, CRIM GmbH will be renamed CIM GmbH to point out the united product range of all types of property use.
CREAG will remain the AIFM with existing back-office functions for the open-ended regulated funds and special funds. The change aligns with Catella’s focus on harnessing synergies across the group and expanding into more value-added products.
The controlling shareholder of CIM GmbH and CREAG will be the Catella Group-owned CIM Holding GmbH, an entity which will provide Office Management such as HR, IT and advise on ESG to both subsidiaries.
The front office operations of CIM GmbH will be led by Michael Keune and Michael Fink as Managing Directors, while the AIFM will be led by the Managing Directors Olena Posiko and Bernd Thalmeier, who will have the role of the speaker of CREAG.
Volker Stix has been nominated as Managing Director of CIM Holding GmbH. The investment manager CIM GmbH will be headquartered in Berlin, with offices in Berlin, Munich, and Vienna.
“With this organizational change and “one-face to the market, our ability to serve our clients’ interests will improve significantly. And we will continue to work with the same teams as before in Berlin, Munich and Vienna. It will provide us with excellent opportunities to further diversify and expand our more than 25 funds and portfolios within the segments and assets classes Residential, Office, Parking, Logistics and Mixed-use”, said Michael Keune and Michael Fink, Managing Directors of CIM, from January 1, 2025.
Bernd Thalmeier, Managing Director for the AIFM platform added: “The merger is a logical step to further strengthen our position in a new market environment and in the face of increasing competition. By pooling our expertise, resources and technologies, we are creating an even more powerful platform for our investors and partners. The aim is to respond to the needs of our investors while continuously ensuring the highest standards of quality and transparency more efficiently and flexibly.”
