News from 04/04/2007
Conwert Immobilien Invest AG, Vienna, announces further purchases of residential properties in Germany this year. Planned volume: Approximately €600mn. In the coming 12 to 18 months, the firm plans total property purchases of €800mn to €1bn. Issue proceeds of around €414mn from the latest capital advance will finance the planned expansion. As Conwert disclosed, the issue was noticeably oversubscribed to by European and American (US) institutional investors with international interests, as well as by private Austrian investors. The opening price of new shares on the Vienna Stock Exchange is planned for April 4.
Driven by a strategy that includes the acquisition of diversified property portfolios with promising yields and development potential in Germany's areas of high population density, TAG Tegernsee Immobilien- und Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft, Hamburg, has disclosed promising results for the 2006 business year.
IVG Immobilien AG, Bonn, increased its earnings markedly last year and is looking for further growth in 2007 by concentrating on its core business. This focus is driving the decision to sell eight tank farms, as well as logistics/transportation and commercial properties, but to keep and grow its crude oil and natural gas concerns. Such careful attention to the composition of its portfolio has sparked speculation about the firm's conversion into a REIT, which the CEO has said is “rather unlikely.�
Unternehmensgruppe Hahn: After record earnings, acquisitions of €300mn announced
Listed on the stock exchange since October, Unternehmensgruppe Hahn has announced, after declaring record earnings in 2006, that it wants to invest around €300mn in 2007. Should acquisition opportunities for larger properties open up, the planned volume could be noticeably overstepped, added CEO Bernhard Schoofs. Indeed, Hahn is already nearly one-third of the way to its goal, having bought properties for around €40mn in the first quarter alone. 2007 is also Hahn's first for foreign acquisitions.
Union Investment Real Estate: “Immo-Invest: Europa� invests in Holland
Union Investment Real Estate AG (formerly DIFA Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG) has acquired a project development at Eindhoven Airport in Holland for its public institutional fund Immo-Invest: Europa. Scheduled for completion in late summer, the property will be one of five structural sections of the “Flight Forum� Business Park with around 17,400 m² of rental area—70% of which has already been leased by the main tenant, the IT firm Atos Origin. The property was sold by a consortium of the Kroon Group and Fortress Vastgoed at an investment volume of around €47.3mn.
BA-CA Real Invest: Newer property funds shall invest in Germany
The Austrian BA-CA Real Invest has published a second open property fund. Real Invest Europe is concentrating on commercial buildings and shopping centers in central and southeastern Europe, as well as Germany. Around €70mn shall be invested this year, €30mn of which will be invested in Germany. According to the property business division manager Reinhard Madlencnik, BA-CA is aiming at a fund volume in the intermediate term of more than €600mn. The yield shall be between 5 and 6% p.a.