Real estate company Swiss Prime Site acquires Akara Group

Swiss Prime Site, a listed real estate company, has acquired the Akara Group in Zug, a founder-managed real estate asset manager with around CHF 2.3 bn in assets under management. The acquisition will enable Swiss Prime Site Solutions to increase its client base considerably and expand the existing investment platform with additional product and fund categories, such as real estate private equity investments.

Akara Funds was established in 2016 by Karl Theiler and Jonathan van Gelder and developed into a FINMA-regulated fund manager with a focus on residential and commercial real estate. The group further includes Akara Real Estate Management as well as Akara Property Development. The Group employs around 50 real estate professionals, all of whom will be taken over. The real estate assets under management total approximately CHF 2.3 billion and a development pipeline of more than CHF 240 million.

The transaction is expected to be completed in mid-January 2022 with retroactive effect from 1 January 2022. The plan is to integrate the Akara Group and the respective companies into Swiss Prime Site Solutions during the course of the 2022 financial year and to merge the two fund management companies.

Homburger advised Swiss Prime Site in all legal matters of this transaction. The Homburger team was led by partner Daniel Hasler (pictured) and included associate Angela Oppliger (both corporate / m&a), partner Jürg Frick and associate Manuel Baschung (both financial market regulation), associate Gabriel Kasper (IP / IT) as well as junior associates Tobias Scheiwiler and Ferdinand Berthold (both corporate / m&a) and Pascal Theis (financial market regulation).