Patrizia buys 3,500-unit Bouwfonds portfolio, raises FY forecast

The Augsburg-headquartered Patrizia Immobilien confirmed that it was the purchaser of the 'multi hundred million euro' German residential portfolio located in western Germany from Bouwfonds Investment Management last month. Patrizia bought the portfolio on behalf of the Barmenia insurance group (for a price thought by market analysts to be close to €300m).

The 223,000 sqm portfolio of assets is currently 97% let, and comprises 3,488 residential units across 49 properties, located in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Bavaria with almost 300 units in Cologne, more than 500 in Hanover and around 100 in Munich. Further units are located in Hamburg, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Berlin.

According to Philipp Schaper, group head of transactions at Patrizia, "There continues to be high demand for good quality rental accommodation in Germany, as proven by the high occupancy rate across this geographically diverse portfolio. We remain interested in identifying the most compelling investment opportunities across Europe, and this most recent acquisition is a strong endorsement of our ability to identify, acquire and manage such assets.'

The portfolio was originally owned by several private Dutch investment funds.

"We acquired these assets having identified the strong fundamentals that underlie the portfolio through the low void rate and strong locations, and it is in line with our buy-and-hold strategy,' said Peret Bergmann, managing director of Patrizia WohnInvest. "We are also planning to privatise individual properties in order to deliver meaningful income to our investors."

Separately, Patrizia posted solid results for the first nine months recently, boosting its operating results by 125% to €252m for the period. As a result of which the company is raising its forecast for the year from €250mn to €265mn.

Even without the sales of the 'Harald' portfolio to Deutsche Wohnen and Südewo to Vonovia, already accounted for in the half-year figures, the operative result nearly doubled to €43.9mn. Assets under management increased by 6.6 % to €17.7bn and are forecast to reach €18.6bn by the end of the year.

About €6.6bn of AUM is now outside of Germany, with the UK making up 11%, making it Patrizia's second-most important market after Germany. The MDAX-listed group has managed to increase capital raised by 50 % to €1.5bn so far this year compared to 2015, and anticipates raising a further €2bn for investment in 2017.