Dutch ING at centre of Sony Centre, tower financing deals

The recent mega-deal which saw Canadian pension fund Oxford Properties and Madison International buy the Sony Centre in Berlin from Korea's national pension fund for €1.1bn has now been financed by the buyers. They have closed a €625m loan with a club of three banks – ING Real Estate Finance as lead arranger, along with pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and Landesbank Baden-Württemburg (LBBW).

For Dutch bank ING, it is the third major German trophy asset financing this year, after financing two big skyscraper transactions in Frankfurt - €380m for Tishman Speyer's TaunusTurm and more than €400m for Commerzbank Tower (with pbb and BayernLB).

In other financing news, the Hanover-based Deutsche Hypothekenbank provided €81m to Polish real estate group Shopping-Center Galeria Baltycka in the port city of Gdansk, which is managed by listed German centre manager Deutsche Euroshop. Deutsche Hypo said it plans to retain half the loan on its own books for the long-term.

According to Sabine Barthauer, board member at Deutsche Hypo, "We are delighted to be able to expand our real estate portfolio in our target market Poland thanks to this attractive financing. Gdansk is one of Poland’s largest retail locations and Galeria Baltycka has shown an above-average performance for several years now thanks to the large catchment area and excellent tenant structure."

Deutsche Hypo also committed to financing the Phoenixhof retail park in Hamburg for the Essen-Gruppe with a €44m loan. The complex is located in the Ottensen district of Hamburg and comprises office space, plus mixed-use properties that accommodate offices, retail space, bars and restaurants and a TV studio.

Meanwhile, Frankfurt-based Helaba is financing a €150m loan for European asset manager Stam Europe for its Highland Logistics portfolio, a joint venture between Stam and a North American institutional investor. The master loan facility covers the acquisition of existing assets, including €220m of investments in the third quarter of 2017 and development projects.

Helaba, along with German insurer Allianz, have also jointly financed PGIM Real Estate's acquisition of the first three parts of PGIM's 'Austria Campus' project in Vienna with a loan of more than €300m. PGIM, along with German and Swiss institutional investors, bought the asset from Austria's Signa Group, which will continue to handle the project through the development and construction phases.

When completed, the mixed-use building ensemble at Vienna's Praterstern railway station will be one of Europe's largest cohesive office developments, with six structures comprising more than 200,000 sqm of office space. When completed, the property will house UniCredit Bank Austria's headquarters along with other anchor tenant Roomz Design Hotel.

Back in Germany, Wiesbaden-based Aareal Bank published third-quarter figures showing that it had written new loans in Q3 of €1.9bn (of which 58% were non-extensions), ahead of last year's figure of €1.6bn). This bring the total after nine months to €5.7bn, just below last year's number of €6.0bn. The bank reiterated its full-year target of €7bn to €8bn.

Aareal said the North American portion of new lending was 43% last quarter (Q3), with gross margins remaining stable at 230 basis points (after deduction of foreign currency costs). Interest income dropped from €175m to €164m due to the reduction of the credit portfolio and currency effects. Commission surplus increased from €44m to €48m thanks to its IT subsidiary Aareon, which is becoming an important profit centre for the bank. Overall, group profit for the 3rd quarter increased by 11% to €82mn and for the nine-month period by 7% to €262mn. The forecast for the year remains at €310m to €350m.