FRANKFURT-The Frankfurt-based Allianz Real Estate, the property arm of the giant Munich insurer, is to begin a program of US acquisitions to add to its $5.9 billion lending program, and will focus on co-investments, its new America CEO James Stolpestad II said.

He said Allianz in the United States, has, for historical reasons had exposure to commercial real estate only via credit lending and currently has no equity investments. This is the mirror image of its business in Europe and elsewhere in the world where Allianz has done no property lending, and has no plans to do so.

However, Stolpestad was hired in the summer to change this. "We will be looking for co-investments where we can supply equity to managers or sponsors who have top quality projects with good returns that might need some extra funding to complete, or achieve full value," he said. "Our focus is on the office markets in the five major gateway cities, New York, Boston, Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles... Strategy has one point of distinction from the European colleagues in that we will be a partner-oriented investor. We will bring capital to major markets and major assets and we are seeking the best in class partners to work with."