Wealthcap buys BayWa Munich HQ for €280m

German closed-end fund manager Wealthcap has bought the new BayWa headquarters at Arabellapark in Munich for about €280m in a sale-and-leaseback deal. The sellers are developer Competo and agriculture and energy group Baywa, a 50-50 joint venture, which occupies the entire building with a 20-year lease agreement.

The high-rise office complex, with the four-pronged "Sternhaus" and the newly-developed campus building, is currently being renovated and extended, and will provide a total of 54,000 sqm on completion in October 2017.

WealthCap, part of the UniCredit banking group, will take over 94.9% of the high-rise HQ after the refurbishment, with BayWa retaining a 5.1% stake. “The sale of the share to WealthCap covers the complete costs from the construction phase,” said BayWa CFO Andreas Helber. “We had interested buyers from all over the world for our headquarters. The selection criteria for the right partner was complex. In the end WealthCap made us the best offer."

The Munich-based Wealthcap has been one of the biggest commercial property investors in its home city since 2013, with more than €1bn invested. With BayWa the company also has history, having bought two property portfolios from BayWa in 2013 for €235m in another sale-and-leaseback deal. They included 79 sites across Germany totalling 1.2m sq.m., housing DIY centres, building materials outlets, workshops and agricultural trade venues.