CURA Vermögensverwaltung

CURA serves as the central investment vehicle for the Otto family, whose wealth originated with the Otto Group's mail-order and retail operations. Alexander Otto — son of founder Werner Otto — chairs ECE Group's management and controls the firm through CURA's structural ownership. The office's managing directors and personally liable partners also hold supervisory roles across the Otto Group and its subsidiaries, embedding CURA within the broader family corporate governance system.

CURA is a single-family office focused on the Otto family's own assets. It uses the traditional German KG (limited partnership) structure, with personally liable partners and corporate managing directors. There is no public indication that CURA accepts third-party funds; its capital comes exclusively from the Otto family balance sheet and related entities.

Key decision-makers operate across two legal entities. The limited partnership KG CURA Vermögensverwaltung is led by managing directors Frank Laurinat, Jens Gerrit Becker, and Frederic Arndts. Its general partner, CURA Vermögensverwaltung GmbH, is managed by Wolfgang Arndts and Benjamin Schaper, who were appointed in January 2022. Family principal Alexander Otto retains ultimate strategic authority, with board seats on multiple portfolio companies.

The office deploys capital across a range of structures: direct real estate control positions (ECE Group, Deutsche EuroShop co-investment with Oaktree), direct co-investments and SPVs in growth and buyout stages, fund-of-funds commitments, and private credit strategies. This mix lets the family maintain operationally intensive control in core property holdings while gaining exposure to manager-led strategies.

CURA actively co-invests with external managers on large-scale transactions. The most prominent example is the partnership with Oaktree Capital Management via Hercules BidCo GmbH to take Deutsche EuroShop AG private, where the two firms act as joint controllers. This signals a willingness to write significant equity checks alongside established institutional partners for control-oriented real estate deals.

Frederic Arndts, a managing director at CURA, serves on the Management Board of Paramount Group, a U.S.-based office REIT. The board interlock suggests a portfolio relationship or co-investment link that ties CURA's European real estate focus to North American commercial property interests.

The Ottos operate several foundations separate from CURA's investment activities. The Alexander Otto Sportstiftung supports sports infrastructure and youth athletics, while the Dorit & Alexander Otto Stiftung focuses on broader charitable causes. The Werner Otto Stiftung and Stiftung Lebendige Stadt are additional entities tied to the family's civic and cultural engagement in Germany.