News from 03/30/2007
Eurocastle Investment Ltd. has sold a portfolio of commercial properties for around €325mn. Goldmann Sachs, which acquired the portfolio of 78 properties with a total rentable area of 254,000 m² for its Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, is the buyer.
Gagfah has concluded its first year after an IPO in the black. The 2006 result from the ongoing business was €177.2mn. A year before, the concern declared a pro forma loss of €173.2mn. In the coming year, Gagfah wants to stockpile its portfolio with 25,000 residences, for which it has available around €1.4bn/year.
GE Real Estate: Retail portfolio valued at €30mn acquired
GE Real Estate Deutschland has bought a retail portfolio valued at €30mn from a private owner. The portfolio includes fifteen furniture stores with a total sales area of 34,000 m², located mainly on the peripheries of large German cities. The properties are leased to Domicil Möbel, a subsidiary of the furniture producer HTL, headquartered in Singapore. With the takeover, GE Real Estate now owns all shops that are self-operated by HTL.
British investor Develica acquires office properties in Bonn, Stuttgart, and Munich for €250mn from DFH Deutsche Fonds Holding. DFH remains committed to the German market, however.
The fund initiator Jamestown sets in view of the overheated US property market on private equity funds. “At the moment, the concept offers a better yield-rate risk than rental funds with over-priced core properties,“ said sole owner Christoph Kahl to the Börsenzeitung.
Berlin: Orco sells tenderloin plot to medical firm
Orco Germany has sold the last 1,800 m² section of the Voßstraße/Eberstraße area to Otto Bock Health Care GmbH, Duderstadt. Based on plans from Rolf Gnädiger for Otto Bock, Orco's sister company, Viterra Development, will build a five-story building on the tenderloin plot, located near the Potsdamer and Leipziger Plazas. Inauguration of the center for medical procedural expertise shall be at the beginning of 2009. In the summer of 2006, Orco could already sell parts of the land to the private investor for an office building and to the Republic of Singapre for its new Berlin embassy .
With high turnover that's expected to continue, Munich's office market is healthy: Rents are increasing at premium locations and, according to Oppenheim Immobilien-Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbh (OIK), the outlook for sustained vacancy reduction is “very good“ through 2008.
Although the average age in Hamburg (42) approximates the national average (42.3), the demographic can be misleading; driven mostly by an influx of young people from other German states, certain parts of the city are driving its overall age demographic down—and the demand for affordable housing up.
Deutsche Annington: IPO “in winter at the latest“
Terra Firma wants to bring its German residential subsidiary, Deutsche Annington Immobilien Gruppe (DAIG) to the stock exchange in the coming winter at the latest. As Die Welt with reference to business circles and consortium banks reports, “it will be one of the largest IPOs of the year,“ because proceeds from the issue will amount to noticeably more than €1bn. DAIG currently holds 180,000 residences in its portfolio and manages another 50,000 units.