US giant Colony Capital lays foundation for German platform

Giant US REIT Colony Capital has been eyeing up a foothold in Germany for some time and we reported some months ago in these pages from the company's Milan Visic's enthusiasm for, particularly, office properties in the eastern part of Berlin.

The Los Angeles-based Colony has now formalised its presence in Germany by buying a 50% stake in fund and asset manager Hamburg Trust. The new partnership will allow the group to expand into instituional asset management and to invest in new residential projects. The buy-in to Hamburg Trust, which was previously owned fully by HTH Hamburg Trust Holding, came following a capital and reserves increase.

Hamburg Trust, which manages €1.2bn in prperty assets, only recently launched it first Spezialfonds for non-profit foundation and plans a further two vehicles with an investment volume of €500m. The first is Shopping Invest, targeting inner city shopping malls in larger cities, and the second is Domicilium Invest, which will look to invest in new project developments in the seven biggest German cities.

According to Hamburg Trust's CEO Dirk Hasselbring, “We are glad to have won such an internationally renowned partner with Colony Capital which wants to support Hamburg Trust’s expansion in the long-term. Especially the strengthening of our capital base is a very good basis for further investments into new property portfolios to expand the institutional business and support opportunities in project developments.”