Press Release
Virtus Real Estate Capital and Almanac Realty Investors Announce Strategic Minority Investment
Transaction marks the second minority GP stakes investment from a fund managed by Almanac and will support Virtus’ continued growth
November 16, 2022, New York, NY - Virtus Real Estate Capital (“Virtus”), a leading investment manager in cycle-resilient property sectors, and Almanac Realty Investors (“Almanac”), the private real estate investment arm of Neuberger Berman, today announced an agreement for Almanac to acquire a passive, minority ownership stake in Virtus. The strategic investment should provide additional resources to Virtus while having minimal impact on the day-to-day management, operations or business decision-making process.
Virtus seeks to leverage the capital partnership for continued investment in the growth of its healthcare, education, storage, student housing and middle-income workforce housing strategies, as well as a focus on attracting, retaining, and growing the firm’s talent.
“The transaction is an exciting development for our organization as we believe that Almanac will be a great strategic partner for Virtus,” said Terrell Gates, Virtus’ founder and CEO. “We believe Almanac is the right partner for Virtus given their decades of experience investing in and growing successful real estate investment businesses, their permanent capital base, and the opportunity to access a range of global resources through Neuberger Berman.”
”Virtus has built a reputation as a thoughtful specialist in real estate investment management, with particular expertise in cycle-resilient sectors, like workforce housing and healthcare,” said Justin Hakimian, Managing Director at Almanac. “We are thrilled to be working with this impressive team on this next phase of their growth. This partnership marks our second GP stakes investment, and we are excited about the prospects for future commitments.”
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP served as legal counsel to Almanac. King & Spalding LLP served as legal counsel to Virtus. Jones Lang LaSalle Securities, LLC advised Virtus on the transaction.
About Virtus
Virtus is a vertically integrated hybrid allocator-operator real estate manager exclusively focused on built space investments in cycle-resilient sectors, including healthcare, education, storage, and middle-income workforce housing. Founded in 2003, Virtus executes core, core-plus, value-add, and opportunistic strategies totaling approximately $5.5 billion in acquisitions on behalf of institutional investors, family offices, and financial institutions. Virtus is privately held and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.virtusre.com.
About Almanac Realty Investors
Almanac Realty Investors, a business unit of Neuberger Berman, is a leading provider of growth capital to public and private real estate companies. Originally founded in 1981 under the name Rothschild Realty, Almanac Realty Investors partners with established owner-operators in all sectors of the real estate market to accelerate company growth and has committed more than $7.0 billion in capital to 50 real estate companies, both public and private, throughout North America. For more information, visit www.almanacrealty.com.
About Neuberger Berman
Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategies—including equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge funds—on behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 26 countries, Neuberger Berman’s diverse team has over 2,600 professionals. For eight consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more).1 Neuberger Berman is a PRI Leader, a designation, since last assessed, that was awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. In the 2021 PRI Assessment, the firm obtained the highest possible scoring for its overarching approach to ESG investment and stewardship, and integration across asset classes.2 The firm manages $408 billion in client assets as of September 30, 2022. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com.
Media Contacts:
For Virtus: Megan Shah | mshah@virtusre.com
For Press Inquiries: Alex Samuelson, 212 476 5392, Alexander.Samuelson@nb.com