News from 06/29/2007
US investor SVP buying Sparkasse portfolio
The US investor Strategic Value Partners (SVP) has acquired a property portfolio of Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa). SVP has put through their offer for approximately 100 branches and additional commercial properties from the holdings of the largest German savings bank. The purchase price shall amount to between €400mn and €500mn, according to market sources. The package was marketed under the project name “Island� by the investment bank Lazard. According to a report from the Financial Times Deutschland, the US investment bank Morgan Stanley and Hamburg's property investor Dieter Becken also participated in the property tendering process. SVP intends to build up its presence in the German property market. The financial investor manages $5bn in various investment strategies. Michael Kremer, the former German head of the Deutsche Bank subsidiary DB Real Estate, has for a short time been the managing director of SVP.
At a volume of up to €1.2bn, RREEF Infrastructure has assumed an approximately 50% interest in Tank & Rast Holding AG. Tank & Rast operates around 340 gas stations and approximately 370 service areas (including 50 hotels) on German highways. RREEF Infrastructure is expected to continue the property modernization efforts of the portfolio's seller, the British private equity firm Terra Firma.
Approximately 190,000 m² of office area were turned over in Frankfurt's office market in the first half of 2007. According to information from Colliers Schön & Lopez Schmitt, this corresponds to an increase of around 30% over last year (around 145,000 m²). Downtown office space in new buildings, or properties that are similar to new buildings, were in particularly high demand. Due to the increasingly narrow supply of modern office space in good locations, the market report expects an increase in rents to €37/m²-€38/m² for premium locations.
Hamburg: Irish investor buys “Bahnhof Altona� shopping center
CMC Shopping Center Altona GmbH, behind which there is an Irish institutional investor, has acquired the “Bahnhof Altona� shopping center. Until now, the owner and project developer of the center was an association of DGAG Deutsche Grundvermögen AG. Silence was agreed to concerning the purchase price. The transaction was brokered by Kemper's. The property in question is located at 15 Paul-Nevermann-Platz/19 Scheel-Plessen-Straße, possesses approximately 16,000 m² of usable area, and is accessible to public transportation. Media Markt, Lidl, Rossmann, and McDonald's are among the anchor tenants.
Halverton Real Estate Investment Management has taken over the Nürnberg/Beuthener Straße Business Park for around €36.5mn. Seller of the property, which shall be positioned in the Halverton-Logistikfonds EB8, is Orion Capital Partners.