Cording buys €143m German portfolio for Danish-Turkish JV

Northern European investment and asset manager Cording Real Estate Group has bought a German office portfolio for €143m on behalf of a joint venture between Denmark's Sparinvest Property Investors and the Turkish group Esas Properties. The seller of the 10-asset portfolio, located across eight different cities, was German investment firm DIC Asset.

Located in Hamburg, Cologne, Hannover, Ulm, Kassel, Braunschweig, Mannheim (2) and Erlangen (2), the properties have a total GLA of 100,000 sqm, including 90% of office space, Cording said. The occupancy rate is at 97%, and tenants include technology conglomerate Siemens (Erlangen), telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom (Braunschweig), Nokia Solutions Networks (Ulm), and chemical company BASF (Mannheim). Cording will take over the asset and property management of the portfolio.

Rodney Bysh, chief executive of Cording, said: “The German office market is attractive, because at present there are only a few new projects being developed. Hence we are anticipating continued rental growth.”

For the Frankfurt-headquartered DIC, the sale was part of its ongoing portfolio optimisation and brought its revenues for 2017 to two-thirds of its year-end target.

"The purpose of this forward-looking sale in a favourable market environment is to streamline our portfolio in a sustainable manner. On top of that, we've now reached two-thirds of the sales target we announced for 2017 with this transaction," said DIC Asset's CEO Aydin Karaduman.

The London-based Cording focuses on investments in Germany, the UK and Benelux, and currently has management mandates worth €2.4bn. The Danish Sparinvest Property Investors co-manages three global real estate fund-of-funds, with Luxembourg-based Sparinvest Holding, which is owned by several Danish banks and pension funds, holding a 70% stake in the firm.

Istanbul-based Esas, founded by the Sabanci family in 2000, says it is the largest family office in Turkey. It invests directly in aviation, retail/entertainment/leisure, healthcare, good, real estate and logistics. It has invested over €200m in real estate since 2009.