Stoneweg Group Acquires MC Property

Geneva-headquartered alternative investment firm Stoneweg Group has agreed to take over MC Property, the European business launched by four former managers from Cromwell Property Group and Valad Europe last year, Green Street News can reveal.

The acquisition comes hot on the heels of the €280m takeover of Cromwell Europe, which Stoneweg completed at the end of last year, along with its London-based shareholder, Icona Capital.

Over the past six months, MC Property has collaborated with the teams at Stoneweg and Icona, offering strategic advice on the acquisition and integration of the Cromwell European platform.

MC Property was founded by:

Mark McLaughlin, former European managing director of Cromwell Europe; Rob Cotterell, former head of investment for Europe and head of UK; Wouter Zwetsloot, former head of real estate Europe and head of Benelux; Martin Hanratty, who was a fund manager at Valad Europe (acquired by Cromwell in 2015) and, latterly, property director at Bizspace.

Managing partner McLaughlin told Green Street News:

“It was not the direction of travel that we anticipated when we launched last year but it became the right time and the right place. Since we got involved in the journey in the acquisition of the Cromwell European platform by Stoneweg and Icona Capital, end 2024, it became apparent that there was a more strategic role for MC Property to play within the new structure and strategy for both Stoneweg and Icona.”

“The objective is to grow the €8bn real assets platform, utilizing a unique combination of a full-service investment manager with specialist sector and local expertise on the ground. The local teams have the knowledge, the history, and the development capabilities, and this is what we are integrating into the Stoneweg Group structure, streamlining the teams and ambitions. The synergies between the two companies within the correct structure is what will set us up for growth.”

Leadership and Integration

As part of the integration, McLaughlin, Cotterell, and Zwetsloot will take on senior leadership positions within Stoneweg; Hanratty will continue to work alongside the team on the sourcing of investment opportunities; McLaughlin and Zwetsloot are based in the Netherlands, while Cotterell and Hanratty are in the UK.

McLaughlin added:

“The strategic direction is very clear and we’ve got three very ambitious shareholders, which have a real drive and conviction about where they want to take the platform. That was the defining element for joining and seeing how the MCP team skillset and experience can leverage off the exceptional platform that’s already there.”

Jaume Sabater, CEO of Stoneweg, added:

“We are thrilled to welcome the MC Property team to the Stoneweg Group. Their deep industry expertise and hands-on experience in real estate investment and asset management will be instrumental in strengthening our platform and expanding our presence across key markets.”

Spotlight on Strategy

The MC Property team, whose capital partners have included Blackstone, Cerberus, Goldman Sachs, and Carlyle, said last year that it would provide investment, asset, and development management for institutional, private equity, and high-net-worth investors.

The firm’s focus is on value-add and opportunistic investments in the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany through the development of logistics facilities, office buildings, and infrastructure mobility hubs, which combine physical infrastructure, energy, storage, and electric charging.

“The objective is to grow the €8bn real assets platform, utilizing a unique combination of a full-service Investment manager with specialist sector and local expertise on the ground.”

— MARK MCLAUGHLIN, MC PROPERTY

McLaughlin added:

“The process from entering as a strategic adviser to becoming a fully integrated part of the business was turbocharged in the past few weeks. In terms of strategy, it was all the things that MCP was looking to do – from the mobility hubs, the electrification, and the infrastructure side of things to all things industrial, logistics, and office. The additional element is that Stoneweg is much more focused on living, hospitality, and other sectors, which really creates a unique platform and opportunity for us.”

Stoneweg, which was co-founded by Sabater and Joaquin Castellvi in 2015, has been very acquisitive in recent months as it aims to grow its real assets portfolio, which is valued at more than €8bn, following the acquisition of €3.9bn of assets under management from Cromwell.

After closing the Cromwell Europe deal, which gives the buyer access to 160 assets and 1,600 tenants, with 14 local offices in 12 European countries, Stoneweg announced in January that it had entered the residential sector in Switzerland. The investment was made through a majority stake in Lausanne-based developer and fund manager Fundim, which oversees more than CHF400m (€426m) in assets across multiple regulated investment vehicles.

Global Exposure

Through the acquisitions, Stoneweg, which has employees across 15 European countries, the US, and Singapore, is also building a global platform.

McLaughlin stated:

“Further to the acquisition by Stoneweg, Cromwell goes from a more northern-focused investment manager to a true pan-European one, with exposure from Singapore through Stoneweg European REIT (SERT), and a presence in the US with the multi-family living platform that Stoneweg Group has there. It really creates a global platform, so we’re joining an organization that enables us to reach that goal more effectively.”

Stoneweg’s portfolio comprises equity and debt investments in the European and US living, light industrial, logistics, hospitality, office, and cultural and leisure sectors.

In 2023, Stoneweg kicked off the leisure strategy “Stoneweg Places & Experiences”, which followed the launch of Stoneweg Hospitality in 2021. A year ago, the Swiss firm entered the UK through Stoneweg InfraSport, a partnership between Stoneweg and Teras Capital.

The joint venture acquired the former Emerge Surf development site in Birmingham from IM Properties, with an investment of around £50m.

Current MC Property clients and mandates will remain active and managed by the dedicated team members until the tasks at hand have been finalized, and the acquisition will not have any modifications on current business, Green Street News understands.

McLaughlin concluded:

“As the acquisition and integration went quickly, it is important for us to deliver a smooth transition over the next two to three months, with our existing mandates providing our trusted capital partners exposure to different markets and sectors.”