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McLEAN, VA-JER Partners, the global real estate investment arm of the JE Robert Cos., has closed its JER Europe Fund III, after having raised $1.1 billion, or €809 million, from investors in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. With leverage, the fund's total buying power will be up to $5.4 billion.

Already JER Europe Fund III has committed to 13 transactions with an all-in cost of $1.1 billion, or €786 million. One transaction was announced in February--the acquisition of three commercial properties for €18.5 million in the north of Germany from a German mortgage bank. The trade was made in a joint venture with International Property Asset Management GmbH (IPAM), the German-based asset management company, in order to develop a German commercial property portfolio, as reported in GlobeSt.com.

JER's geographic and sector focus in the region is a broad one, open to opportunities across all asset classes throughout Europe. Its strategy, as with most of its real estate platform, is to identify and invest in undervalued assets and then further improve the value through intensive asset management. Over the course of its European funds, including Fund III, JER Partners has invested in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Turkey. It has made investments in regional offices in the United Kingdom, acquired and subsequently sold a hotel in France, bought a portfolio of commercial assets in Finland and acquired and subsequently sold a portfolio of supermarkets across Sweden, among other transactions.