Integrity first
We would rather turn down an opportunity than compromise on how transparently we think and communicate about it.
Our beginning
Why we started Collineo
We started this firm because we kept noticing the same gap in the market: too much capital chasing headline returns, and too little patient, structurally aware capital willing to sit in the mezzanine layer of a real estate capital stack or study an infrastructure asset for years before forming a view. We wanted to build something different — a firm defined by curiosity, restraint, and a genuine interest in how capital structures actually behave under stress.
Dortmund, and the wider Ruhr region, gave us the right vantage point. It is a place shaped by industrial change, by the slow rebuilding of infrastructure and real estate over generations, and by a certain practical, unglamorous confidence that we have tried to carry into our own work.
Milestones
Our history, in brief
We have grown gradually since our founding, adding capability and depth rather than chasing scale for its own sake. These are some of the moments that shaped the firm we are today.
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2011
Collineo is founded in Dortmund
A small founding team comes together around a shared conviction: that mezzanine structures and real assets deserved more careful, independent thinking than they were typically given.
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2013
First mezzanine structures studied in depth
We begin building the internal frameworks we still use today to think through the middle layer of the real estate capital stack, focusing on structure, covenants, and downside protection.
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2015
Widening our lens to infrastructure
Encouraged by what we were learning about long-lived, cash-generative assets, we begin extending our research beyond real estate into infrastructure-adjacent themes.
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2018
A dedicated research function takes shape
As our team grows, we formalise a research discipline of our own — one that values written analysis, structured debate, and a healthy scepticism toward consensus views.
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2020
Deepening our alternative asset frameworks
We spend this period refining how we think about alternative asset structures more broadly, always returning to the same questions about collateral, cash flow, and resilience.
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2023
A new home at Phoenixsee
Our team relocates to Phoenixseestraße in Dortmund, a setting that reflects our own outlook — a formerly industrial site patiently redeveloped into something built to last.
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2026
Continuing the same long-term orientation
Today we continue to apply the same patient, structurally minded approach that has guided us since the beginning, informed by everything we have learned along the way.
What guides us
Three principles we keep returning to
Real partnership
We see every counterpart — operators, co-investors, advisors — as someone we intend to work with again, not just once.
Patience as strategy
We are comfortable waiting for the right structure and the right moment, rather than forcing an outcome to fit a deadline.