This article is authored by MOI Global instructor Gokul Raj Ponnuraj, portfolio manager of public equities at Bavaria Industries Group, based in Munich.

Gokul Raj is an instructor at European Investing Summit 2022, to be held fully online from October 11-13. Members enjoy complimentary and exclusive access.

Patrizia SE (Germany: PAT1) is a top-three European real estate asset manager with a strong balance sheet (25%+ of market cap as net cash). The shares recently traded at 0.35% of AUM and 0.7x book value, despite having an owner-operator who has compounded book value per share at 15.5% over the past decade.

Patrizia has transformed from being a capital heavy real estate operator into an asset light investment manager with 56 billion euros of AUM. It is now a scaled-up platform as the firm has grown AUM at 24% CAGR (including inorganic) over the last decade. Over 80% of their AUM is in perpetual or 10 year+ vehicles and that provides strong resiliency to the business through a predictable management fee stream.

Patrizia has a conservative culture anchored by the 54% ownership by the founder. Over 80% of the real funds are in the Core & Core+ categories compared with just 20% in the higher risk value-add segment. They do not accrue carry income to the financial statements until realized except in special-purpose vehicles where IFRS forces them to. The leverage on their properties is also lower than peers with an average of 35% LTV.

The long-term performance of their funds is healthy with a 4.2% out performance versus benchmark. Their valuation marks are conservative as they have always used a long run average discounting rate even when interest rates fell below zero. The unaccounted carry provides buffer to the current valuations.

On a normal year, transactions are 10-15% of AUM and that provides Patrizia with lucrative fee income along with an ability to book carry income. With the current market uncertainty, I believe that the transaction and performance fee streams should be weak for the next few quarters. The management expects to get to 250 million of management fees yearly in the medium term and that should provide strong stability to profitability.

The firm does not need any capital for growth and hence I would expect strong dividend pay outs going forward. On incremental AUM, the firm will be able to earn almost 20 bps per year and thus if the firm is able to grow the AUM to 80 billion as the management wishes, I do see a strong growth in operating profits. Once the current bearish sentiment around Europe turns around, I believe Patrizia’s shareholder returns will come from all the 3 levers – revenue growth, margin expansion and valuation re-rating.

The market cap of Patrizia is around 900 million euros. The net cash on the firm’s balance sheet is around 250 million euros. Their co-investment portfolio is worth 550 million euros. The majority of this is linked to Dawonia which is a solid Munich residential real estate portfolio that is currently marked at a 3%+ rental yield. With increasing cost of construction and under supply in Munich, there should not be any big mark down in this value.

Hence, the asset management business with 56 billion of AUM is available for a partly 200 million euro valuation (35 bps of AUM) which is several times cheaper than private market transactions in the alternate asset management space. Even on traditional metrics, the P/B is 0.7X, tangible P/B is 1.2X, EV/ EBITDA is 6X and dividend yield is 3%. Even though we await markets to value them as an alternate asset manager, there is strong downside protection due to the assets. Thus, the Risk-Reward is asymmetric for an investor at the current price.

Catalyst

Dawonia portfolio sell down at current market value would release 500 million euros of capital, leading to net cash on balance sheet rising to 80% of current market cap. The end date for the portfolio is 2023 but could be extended if market conditions are not favourable.

Risks

There will be headwinds in the transaction and performance fees along with potential mark downs in the co-investment portfolio. In the long term, the company needs to fix its cost structure and demonstrate operating leverage to get good valuations. Cost to Income ratio is still elevated despite scale. The management in my view have slightly overpaid for inorganic growth in the past. They are spreading themselves thin with expansion into newer asset categories and geographies. The firm should attract strong investment talent to be successful and their conservative culture might prove to be a deterrent.

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