Charles Kingston
REFIRE
Offices come to the rescue of struggling shopping centres
Ten years ago we wrote (rather excitedly, if memory serves) about the purchase by Europa Capital of the Forum Steglitz shopping centre, on one of Berlin’s premier shopping drags, the Schlossstrasse in the south-west of the city. Read more
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HIG Capital closes Europe fund well above €500m target
Global alternative asset management firm HIG Capital’s value-add Europe property fund has exceeded its €500m fundraising target by more than a third at final close. The HIG Europe Realty Partners II fund, which raised €673m, will principally make... Read more
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HB Reavis debuts in Germany with sites in Berlin and Dresden
After rapid expansion throughout eastern Europe and in the UK, Slovakian developer and workspace provider HB Reavis has announced its first two projects in Germany, acquisitions in Berlin and Dresden totaling 3.5 hectares. This makes Germany the... Read more
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High urban prices pushing up property in big city hinterlands
The latest monthly report from the Bundesbank deals with housing prices outside the biggest German cities, and concludes that while price rises have slowed in the big cities, they have been gathering pace in urban hinterlands. Read more
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Phoenix Spree Deutschland revalues Berlin assets by 21%
Phoenix Spree Deutschland, the London-listed investment company focused on Berlin residential real estate, saw its investment portfolio valuation rise by 14.0% during the year as it continued to benefit from the German capital’s strong market... Read more
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Warburg-HIH starts new multi-manager fund, focus on Germany
German asset manager Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate is launching a new multi-manager investment fund for institutional capital. The open-ended special alternative investment fund Warburg-HIH Immobilien Selektiv will allow institutional investors... Read more
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Union Investment, ZBI, plan takeover of BGP portfolio from China fund
In what could be a first for a major German fund manager, giant Union Investment is getting close to concluding a deal to buy about 16,000 German apartments for a sum of up to €2bn from the Chinese sovereign fund CIC. Read more
German Estate Group
GEG invests €140m in Düsseldorf and Mainz
The Frankfurt-based GEG German Estate Group has bought two further properties in Düsseldorf and Mainz for a total of € 140 million for its funds "Deutschland Value I" and "Public Infrastructure I". Read more
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Niche segments thriving in hotel sector as yields compress further
As we reported back in November, the Latin American hotel chain is currently scouting locations for its concept hotels in Germany, which are targeted at the millennium and digital nomad generation. Read more
edicto GmbH
Godewind lowers financing costs, targets €3m in office assets
German listed office specialist Godewind Immobilien said it had concluded a new €82m refinancing package for three assets in its portfolio, significantly lowering its debt servicing costs. Read more
Slate Asset Management L.P.
Canada’s Slate buys fresh German retail portfolio for €31.5m
The Toronto-headquartered Slate Asset Management continues to make inroads into the grocery real estate and Fachmarktzentrum market in Germany with another acquisition. Read more
DRESTATE Services GmbH
Hiccup in steady progress at Summit Germany, share price probe
Volatile share price movements over the past few weeks at the AIM-listed Summit Germany are a reflection of uncertainty surrounding an investigation into insider trading in Israel, including the offices of the company’s major shareholder Summit... Read more
REFIRE
Tenants to the left of me, trade wars to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle...
The news this week that Caterpillar, often viewed as a bellwether industrial group, reported a sharp slow down in sales in China will have been widely noted in Germany, many of whose leading exporters will shortly be perusing their own results for... Read more
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Listed Belgian Immobel enters German market with Frankfurt tower
The Belgian Immobel Group has bought the “Eden” residential tower project in the Gallus district of Frankfurt am Main, marking the group’s first entry into the German market. Read more
DEUTSCHE WOHNEN
Boardroom struggle at TLG Immobilien as Ouram seeks changes
In our December issue of REFIRE, we speculated that Ouram Holding, controlled by Israeli investor Amir Dayan, was about to make a full takeover attempt for the German listed TLG Immobilien. Read more
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AIM-Listed Summit Germany to list unit in Frankfurt IPO
The AIM-listed German commercial property group Summit Germany Ltd. confirmed earlier this month that it was exploring an initial public offering of its Summit Luxco unit on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Read more
Instone Real Estate Group B.V.
Instone boosts German residential pipeline to €4.5bn
German listed residential developer Instone Real Estate has signed to secure three further development projects in Germany, bringing its current pipeline of projects to about €4.5bn. Read more
CORESTATE-Capital-AG
CORESTATE makes further move into serviced apartment segment
Luxembourg-headquartered and German-listed CORESTATE Capital has been entering new business segments on what seems like an almost quarterly basis for so long now that we shouldn’t be surprised to hear about the group’s latest thrust into... Read more
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First Austrian benchmark bond helps fuel merger speculation
Austrian listed property group Immofinanz bolstered its finances earlier this month when it placed €500m of fixed rate senior unsecured notes with a four year maturity and a 2.65% coupon. The net proceeds of the note issue will be used for the refina Read more
Activum SG Capital
Activum buys second German senior housing developer
European turnaround specialist ActivumSG Capital Management has bought WirtschaftsHaus, a major German developer of senior housing, to lead the sector in Germany with a €1.2bn pipeline of properties. No price details of the deal were given. Read more