JenAcon transaction volume now exceeds €2.5bn
REFIRE met recently with property advisor JenAcon in the Thuringian city of Jena, which like ourselves, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The Jena and Osnabrück-based JenAcon has created a strong niche for itself as a broker of portfolio deals, many of which never fall under the glare of publicity, but over the years have numbered many-large-scale transactions.
Dr. Joachim Arenth, the founder and principal shareholder, says the company has now concluded over 40 portfolio transactions, now totalling more than €2.5bn. Several deals have involved big retailers such as Karstadt, Woolworth, Aldi Süd, and grocery chain Edeka, as well as chemical group Bayer AG. The company also advises on M&A, project management and strategy.
Last year JenAcon acted as selling agent on a number of large deals involving Marktkauf, a marketing subsidiary of Edeka. In December, Marktkauf sold 14 Netto stores and an Edeka store to Frankfurt-based opportunistic asset manager GPEP on behalf of its fund manager client Universal Investment for about €30m. In March last year JenAcon also acted as selling agent for a portfolio of a further twelve Netto discount supermarkets.
CEO Oliver Heinrichs, who leads a 12-member team in Jena, indicated that two multi-million euro transactions are currently being wrapped up on behalf of a private equtiy group and a German family office, as well as a couple of smaller deals which helped to kick off the year. The company's normal-sized deals are between €10m and €250m. A key strength of the group is its over-3,500 investor database, says Heinrichs, which helps to target likely partners for unusual or unheralded transactions.