Patrizia Immobilien doubles net profit to €25.5m
German listed property group Patrizia Immobilien AG saw its net profit nearly double to €25.5m in 2012 from €13.5m in 2011. Operating earnings including sales of property assets rose 52.6% to €44m, while the provision of property services including fund management rose from 34% to 51%, as the company moves further from its roots as a residential property developer and trader.
Over the past 12 months, the Ausburg-based company has focused on growing the business by opening new branches in London (where it recently acquired the Tamar Capital Group), Paris and Copenhagen.
”For some years now, we have focused on expanding our fund and asset management business, and are increasingly reaping the rewards from earlier investments,” said Wolfgang Egger, founder and CEO of Patrizia Immobilien, in a recent teleconference with journalists.
With the help of its co-investment strategy, the company plans to increase its investment volume in the near future. “In 2015, we plan to oversee real estate assets totalling at least €10 billion,” said Egger. Patrizia currently manages €7.5 billion of real estate, made up of 60% commercial assets and 40% residential. It currently owns and manages about 6,000 residential units - about 1,700 less than last year – but plans to sell off all its holdings by 2016 and re-invest the proceeds as co-investor with other investors in its funds, Egger said.
Bank loans declined by 24.9% over the past year to €521m, reflecting an equity ratio of 35.4%. Staff employed grew by 17.7% over the year to 586 employees.
In 2012, Patrizia set up additional funds via its asset management companies, and now manages 20 special funds for real estate with a target volume of nearly €8 billion. The company said it will focus on expanding the European business further in 2013.
”We will focus on establishing Patrizia as an investment platform, while improving operational processes and enhancing the efficiency of our organization,”said Egger. He said he expected two-thirds of its earnings to come from services this year.
Patrizia is one of only two bidders left for the 33,000-unit residential portfolio of Munich landesbank BayernLB, in a tender process which is heading into its final phase. The portfolio is valued at €2.4bn. Last year Patrizia led a consortium of domestic and foreign insurance companies and pension funds to secure the 21,000-unit residential holding portfolio of Stuttgart bank LBBW for €1.435bn, in one of the biggest German deals of the year.