Publity triples portfolio size, quadruples profit

Another company which surged throughout 2015, both in terms of assets under management and profits, was the Leipzig-headquartered and Frankurt-listed Publity, which more than trebled its portfolio during 2015 from €500m to €1.6bn.

The rapid growth, Publity said, was due to its business model of acquiring high-yielding office and commercial properties in Germany through joint ventures with institutional investors, in what it describes as its "manage to core" strategy.

Publity acts as a co-investor alongside either German or international institutional capital and takes charge of the asset management, which gives it added incentive to profit from the eventual sale of assets. It describes this as its "manage to core" strategy.

In a statement Publity said that the portfolio increase of 220% over a 12-month period underlined the company's position as one of the fastest growing asset managers in the German commercial real estate market. The company said its goal is to have €5bn of AUM by the end of 2017.

Turnover doubled over 2014 to €23m, profit grew to €13.0bn from €2.8bn in the previous year, while EBIT quadrupled from €4.7m to €20.7m

'We not only predicted a significant increase in our assets under management in 2015, we also delivered on this commitment. We will continue to grow rapidly and strongly in 2016 and 2017 due to our unique market position and strong investment partners,' CEO Thomas Olek said.

The company's equity capital also quadrupled in 2015 from €8.3m to €32.6m. CEO Olek owns 70% of the shares, with the rest in free float. Publity is paying out a total of €11m of the annual profit (nearly €13m) to shareholders, or €2.00 per share. The current share price is about €40.00.

Publity also earns from a series of Non-Performing Loan funds which it set up between 2009 and 2013 to invest in problem loan portfolios. Its NPL Funds 1-5 have already paid out 75%, or €83.5m, on loan portfolios with a nominal value of €110.8m. Publity was a pioneer in setting up public mutual funds to invest in the NPL sector, with its "Task Force NPL Fonds Nr. 1 GmbH" in 2009, with the other four funds following at annual intervals.