Swiss Life, Corpus Sireo bag Deka's Stella portfolio for €370m

In one of the largest commercial property deals of the year in Germany, Swiss Life Asset Management and its German subsidiary Corpus Sireo paid €370m to buy the "Stella" portfolio from Frankfurt-based Deka Investements. The deal is likely to close in the first quarter of 2016.

The Stella portfolio is made up of 26 commercial properties out of two different Deka funds. 15 properties valued at €255m come from the mutual fund Deka-ImmobilienEuropa, while the remaining 11 come from an institutional Spezialfonds.

The office properties are located mainly in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Munich, as well as secondary cities such as Dresden, Bonn or Hanover. The buildings have a total rental area of about. 221,000 sqm, including 178,000 sqm of office rental area, with nearly all the properties being leased to multiple tenants. The vacancy rate is 11%.

According to Corpus Sireo, most of the properties will be added to funds held by Swiss Life Asset Managers, while part of the portfolio, including properties requiring management, will be offered to international investors for co-investment. These will then be repositioned, and primed for onward sale at a later stage. Corpus Sireo will handle the asset management of the properties.

Roy Brümmer, managing director and head of acquisitions at Corpus Sireo Asset Management, said: “We have secured the portfolio in a fiercely competitive market, and thus been able this year to acquire not only many individual properties but also a major commercial real estate portfolio for our investors. Our task is now to integrate the properties in our fund structures and investment vehicles and to manage them for investors with the long-term aim of optimising value.”

As Ingo Hartlief, Corpus Sireo's CEO told a press briefing at the MIPIM in Cannes earlier this year, the new impetus given to his group by its ownership by, and close partnership with, parent company Swiss Life Asset Managers and its sister companies in Switzerland, France and Germany means that the company is actively on the acquisition trail. It said at the recent Expo REAL that it is currently performing due diligence on about €700m of property across Europe at the moment.

It also sold about €700m of real estate over the first six months of this year as transaction manager, following total sales last year of €2.3bn. Overall, Corpus Sireo manages €16bn of its own and third-party assets.

Swiss Life bought Corpus Sireo from three German savings banks, or Sparkassen, for €210m in 2014.