Barings Buying Artemis Real Estate Partners

Investment manager Barings is building up its real estate capabilities, agreeing to acquire one of the top female-led firms in the business.

Charlotte-based Barings is set to buy Washington, D.C.-based Artemis Real Estate Partners, the companies announced on Tuesday morning. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed; the deal is set to close this quarter.

As of the end of last year, Barings’ real estate platform already had more than $50 billion in assets under management. With Artemis in the fold, that number will surge past $60 billion, a 20 percent leap that would propel Mike Freno’s firm into the top 30 of PERE’s ranking of real estate investment firms.

“We believe this acquisition will meaningfully enhance our capabilities,” Freno said in a statement. Barings is a subsidiary of MassMutual.

Last year, Barings sold 100 Wall Street in Manhattan to David Werner and Lloyd Goldman for $116 million. The property was marketed as a potential office-to-residential conversion.

Artemis, which has $11 billion in assets under management, invests across real estate sectors, dabbling in multifamily, industrial, office, retail, hospitality, self-storage, senior housing and medical office properties. Executives from the company, led by Deborah Harmon and Alex Gilbert, noted how the proposed merger would strengthen the platform for Artemis investors.

A couple of years back, Artemis flexed its local commercial muscle, acquiring Metropolitan Square in the nation’s capital from the Blackstone Group and Boston Properties for $305 million. The firm had $3 billion in dry powder that year after closing its largest fund ever, according to PERE.

Penny Pritzker, who now leads PSP Partners, was also a founder of Artemis, which will reportedly rebrand to become a “Barings company.” Harmon and Gilbert are expected to continue running the business. Barings’ headcount for its real estate workforce, meanwhile, will approach 375 employees.

After years of low transaction volume bogged down by rising interest rates, mergers are being struck across the real estate investment world. Among the firms making major acquisitions are Ares Management (GLP Capital Partners), Blue Owl (IPI Partners) and BNP Paribas (AXA IM).