Barings to Acquire Artemis Real Estate Partners

Barings, one of the world’s leading investment managers with more than $421 billion assets under management (AUM) as of 31 December 2024, has signed an agreement to acquire Artemis Real Estate Partners, a $11+ billion real estate investment firm.

This acquisition will strengthen Barings’ position in the US real estate market and accelerate the platform’s long-term growth by combining the firms’ complementary investment capabilities and expertise. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Barings’ global real estate platform has more than $50 billion in AUM, including its over $28 billion global real estate debt business with broad direct origination capabilities and deep credit expertise investing in loans secured by institutional-quality commercial real estate. The platform operates out of 17 offices in nine countries, leveraging a nearly 60-year track record to offer diversified real estate debt and equity solutions across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

Artemis, which is headquartered in Washington, DC, is a diversified real estate firm with investment expertise across the risk spectrum. The firm has consistently delivered strong returns throughout multiple economic cycles, leveraging its extensive network of operating partners across the US.

Key Pillar of Growth

Mike Freno, Chairman & CEO of Barings said that they viewed real estate equity investing as a key pillar of growth within their long-term strategy and believe this acquisition will meaningfully enhance the company’s capabilities.

Artemis co-founder and co-CEO Deborah Harmon said that Barings’ global platform and their shared commitment to aligning interests with investors makes the firm the ideal partner to build on her company’s proven record of successful investment performance.

“We will create a more powerful platform for our investors as Artemis, a Barings company, preserving our culture while creating new opportunities for our team. We are deeply grateful to our investors for the past 15 years and look forward to continuing our partnership as a force multiplier for performance and purpose,” she added.

“Partnership has been fundamental to Artemis since our founding, and today’s announcement represents a natural progression of our decades-long history of building successful teams together,” added Alex Gilbert, co-Chief Executive Officer of Artemis. “We are thrilled to join forces with Barings, combining our extensive relationships and their robust infrastructure to create an even stronger investment platform – one with the capabilities to meaningfully increase access to capital across the risk spectrum for our broad base of joint venture operating partners across the U.S.”

It may be recalled that Artemis has raised the largest $2.2 billion from investors through its Artemis Fund IV in June 2023.

Artemis was constantly looking for distressed properties, and bought the Metropolitan Square at 655 15^th St. NW in Washington, D.C., in October 2023. The office building is located one block from the White House and was acquired from Blackstone as well as Boston Properties.