Diok Real Estate repositions for Life Sciences with new investor consortium

Small German investor and asset manager Diok Real Estate AG looks set for a more aggressive approach to gaining a foothold in the science parks market, after taking on board a new investor consortium.

The Cologne-based Diok, which specialises in office real estate, has sold 49.9% of its share capital to an international consortium of private investors known as Alvarium Investments. At the same time German industry veteran Dr. Ralf Nöcker of London-based 64 Investments is joining the Diok board to represent Alvarium and the consortium including his own company, and work alongside existing Diok directors Markus Drews and Daniel Grosch, both of whom recently extended their contracts with Diok for a further three years.

The attraction of the Diok portfolio, Ralf Nöcker told REFIRE, is the nature of the €220m of office assets, many of which are science parks or otherwise related to research and development - a sector with a lot of perceived growth potential. The Diok assets could be seen as Life Science-focussed (28% by value), Green Technology Investing (20% by value) and Digital Transformation.

Nöcker's company, along with capital partner Alvarium, plans to build out on this future-oriented science park focus, while at the same time reducing Diok's outstanding debt position and strengthening its operations. That debt position has been hefty, at over 80% of its balance sheet, and has been hindering Diok's rating and growth perspectives, according to Diok's CEO Markus Drews. The original €50m of assets the company had at its founding in 2018 have grown - but only to €206m, far short of the originally planned €1bn within three to four years.

Alvarium is a global wealth and asset manager investing on behalf of family offices, foundations and institutions around the world. Jonathan Elkington of Alvarium commented: "The German science park market is currently highly fragmented, and with increasing investor interest in the sector, we see a compelling opportunity to build a scalable institutional-quality commercial real estate portfolio. This partnership fits into Alvarium's broader strategy of providing capital to themed investment strategies we have identified, executed by high performing teams."

Ralf Nöcker's company, 64 Investments - so-called for the 64th département in France (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) where the company concluded its first deal - is based in London where it has originated, designed and structured over €4bn of deals, always co-investing along with its principals.