Greenman invests further €101m in German retail parks

Irish alternative investment fund manager Greenman Investments bought seven further German retail properties with a combined value of €101m. The German-focused group said at the recent Expo REAL in Munich that it expects to more than double its portfolio to €900m in 2017, with more than €300m for its dedicated Retail+ Fund, which specialises in Fachmarktzentren, or retail parks.

In its latest deal, the assets were bought in five separate transactions across Q3 2016 for three different alternative investment funds (AIFs) managed by Greenman. The properties include two hybrid centres (in Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein), a retail park (Hesse) and four supermarkets (Thuringia and Brandenburg), with a total lettable area of around 50,000 sqm.

According to John Wilkinson, CEO and co-founder of Greenman Investments, "With further transactions slated for Q4 2016 we’re well placed to increase our assets under management to our target of €450m by the end of this year. With our established network of project developers and history of sale-and-leaseback transactions, we have continued to secure a pipeline of attractive properties, a most important element to delivering growth in today’s competitive market."

Two of the largest assets purchased, the Hansa Center in Berlin, comprising 21,825 sqm of lettable space, and the CityCenter Ulzberg in Henstedt-Ulzberg, were bought for the Income PRO AIF, which was launched for Middle Eastern investors in 2016. The other AIFs involved in the transactions are the Greenman Retail+ AIF and Greenman Income TWO, the company's latest AIF.

Greenman's Middle Eastern partner for its IncomePRO fund is RiverCrossing, a London-based investment management firm providing sharia-compliant opportunities to family offices and ultra high net worth individuals in the Gulf region.

RiverCrossing's CEO Asim Zafar said, "The portfolio we are looking to develop will focus on the acquisition of properties benefiting from long-term leases with some of Germany's and, indeed, Europe's largest retailers, non-cyclical demand for essential goods and robust exit markets supported by significant interest from institutional investors and resilient cap rates over economic cycles."

Greenman currently manages 53 retail assets with a total of 225,000 sqm of lettable space across Germany. As with its previous deals, the Berlin law firm of Bottermann Khorrami LLP, advised Greenman on the latest transactions.