Arete Invest, a fast-growing fund focused on investment in real estate, received the prestigious Czech Top 100 Award – a special award for innovation and transparency in the Czech investment market – at a ceremony in the Spanish Hall of the Prague Castle at the end of June.
The reasons why Czech Top 100 granted the special award were in particular the fund’s successful efforts to bring foreign capital to the Czech Republic, its very transparent approach to investors ,in which it holds up international standards, (albeit under the supervision of the Czech National Bank due to the fund’s local registration), the regular quarterly distribution of dividends in the amount of 6 % per year and a short investment cycle of the first sub-fund with the audited result of more than 100 % of profit for shareholders for a mere 18 months.
“Over several years of operation, we have achieved numerous successes and caught up with the largest Czech companies. Our transparency towards our investors is one of our key principles – we are, therefore, truly proud of the award we have received. We believe that we will continue to bring the same above-standard revenues to our investors,” says Lubor Svoboda, co-founder and Chairman of the Management Board of Arete Invest.
Arete Invest already has a second active sub-fund; the investment story of the first sub-fund ended last year by selling off the entire residential portfolio consisting of several hundred housing units to a foreign financial investor. In February 2016, the second sub-fund of Arete Invest, CEE II, was established. This sub-fund is gradually creating a homogeneous portfolio of high-standard revenue-bearing industrial real estate.
The expected value of the assets managed by CEE II over the anticipated five-year investment cycle is 200 million euros. The sub-fund aims at the continuous improvement of the investors’ funds in the amount of 11-16 % per year, of which up to 6 % per year are regular dividends paid on a quarterly basis. However, as can be seen in the audited results for 2016, the current revenue rate far exceeds the 16 % announced – the gross revenue for the last year was as much as 25.7 %. By the end of this year, the fund is planning to invest another 60 million euros in the Czech and Slovak markets and thereby shift the volume of the assets owned to the threshold of approximately 120 million euros
