HanseMerkur cautious after big buying and lending spree in 2020/21

HanseMerkur Grundvermögen AG (HMG), the Hamburg-based specialist asset and investment manager, has been remarkably active throughout the COVID years when many of its German-focused peers were holding back on major acquisitions.

In 2020 and 2021 the company bought about €2.3bn of German real estate, including eight separate office properties in the €100m+ category. Among its biggest buys were the HQ of the Federal Ministry of Health in Friedrichstrasse in Berlin, the FAZ Tower in Frankfurt (home of the FAZ newspaper), and the 'Campus am Kunstpalast' in Düsseldorf, let to the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

As a property lender, HMG also grew its finance and investment business to over €800m in 2021 alone. Along with financing, the 100-strong team at HMG now manages assets of about €6bn.

The company said it had seen strong growth in interest from potential investors to co-invest alongside HMG, and it had doubled its number of joint partners in either assets or financing to over 70, with equity commitments of more than €1.2bn. This surge in interest, the company suggested, came from its ability to offer institutional investors highly differentiated sectoral or regional focuses - such as offices in the Big 7 cities, residential assets nationwide (including micro-apartments, senior living and student accomodation), and mixed-use assets in states such as North Rhine-Wesphalia, and the Southwest including Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate.

Lutz Wiemer, the deputy CEO, said in a statement: "Not even Corona was able to deflect us from our growth path. Still, we've been watching developments in our industry very carefully since the beginning of this year. The significant rise in interest rates and inflation, the further massive increase in construction prices and, of course, the war in Ukraine and its consequences will also affect our industry."