ILG Group stocks new fund with €140m of HBB retail assets

The Munich-based ILG Capital Group is also looking to invest as much as €400m in Germany’s retail property sector. It says it has already raised €150m from German investors in firm equity commitments.

The company, which manages institutional capital, invests exclsuively in large-scale retail projects and nursing-home faciilities. Its latest fund is an open-ended Spezialfonds, the ILG Einkaufen Deutschland I fund, which is targeting large German retail properties at a volume of about €400m.

The fund has already bought six assets for €140m from HBB Hanseatische Betreuungs- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH. These include the Neue Mitte Ingelheim and two retail properties in Ahlen and Walsrode, which the fund bought on 1st August. These will be followed by the Marktcenter Uelzen and the Nidder Forum at the end of the year. A retail park in Plettenberg will be officially taken over at the end of next year.

Harald Ortner, managing Director of HBB, commented on the relationship between HBB and ILG Group. “The two companies work so well together because we both represent a similar philosophy: both companies are able to look back on a long tradition, have remained owner-managed and define themselves through the concept of the so-called 'honorable businessman', as it is known in Germany.”

Florian Lauerbach, managing partner at ILG, said: “We’ve managed to set up an extensive pipeline for further acquisitions and have already entered into concrete negotiations with a few vendors, meaning we are counting on further acquisitions within 2016.”

ILG was founded in 1980 by Dr. Günter Lauerbach, who remains the majority shareholder, with management retaining the rest of the share ownership. The company has set up more than 40 public mutual funds of which 21 have since been dissolved after running their duration, averaging IRRs to investors of 10.3%, according to ILG.