New era at Dr. Lübke as Kelber, Kind join company
The traditional Frankfurt-based property services provider Dr. Lübke is kicking off a new era as it joins forces with two very different, but in their own way highly experienced hands, to create a new business focused on German residential real estate investments for institutions.
The new business will be known as Dr. Lübke & Kelber and sees German residential asset management and privatisation veteran Jürgen Kelber and financial rainmaker Ralf Kind join Dr. Lübke bosses Morten Hahn and Ulrich Jacke in running the new business, with all four taking an equal stake in the business. REFIRE sat down with the principals in the business’s new offices recently to learn about the new company’s ambitions.
Kelber was already a specialist in residential property management and privatisation when he sold his business Alt & Kelber to Austria’s conwert Immobilien as it launched its acquisition drive into Germany six years ago. He remained as a board member with conwert until year-end 2012. He describes this move as “a return to entrepreneurialism”.
Ralf Kind arrives from Barclays, where as head of the real estate investment banking team he was involved in countless German property deals in his 12-year stint there, Along with Kelber and George Salden, previously head of M&A at conwert Immobilien, Kind has created a new service company called Arbireo. The new service provider will cooperate very closely with Dr. Lübke & Kelber, identifying deals and handling structured investments and co-investments, while leaving asset management and transactions to the Dr.Lübke & Kelber team. According to Kelber, “We can offer plenty of real estate know-how and capital market competencies to national and international investors, and we plan to become one of the top three leading asset and investment managers in Germany.”
Given Dr. Lübke’s close historical association with residential real estate, that segment would continue to predominate, but the business would keep an opportunistic eye on the commercial property market as well. The new business already has €400m of assets under management in the multi-family sector on behalf of institutional investors, but the clear goal, said the partners, is to reach €1bn in residential assets under management in the next two years. This is likely to come from development opportunities and accessing properties for investment outside the larger German cities, where Kind and Kelber also have extensive experience.
The business can build on the six regional offices already operating under the Dr. Lübke flag to provide hands-on asset management services across the whole country. It doesn’t harm the new company’s prospects that it is already the exclusive adviser to the European Central Bank on all real estate matters, while continuing to advise several big institutional investors on strategically re-positioning their real estate assets.