By Eyk Henning and Isabel Gomez
A Deutsche Bank AG (DBK.XE)-managed fund has confirmed it will
sell a housing portfolio valued at 1 billion euro ($1.36 billion)
to Austria's Immofinanz AG (IIA.VI), which will then float the unit
on Frankfurt's stock market by end-March, people familiar with the
matter said Wednesday.
The sale of the unit, Solaia Real Estate Group S.a.r.l., comes
at a time when investors are lured by the nascent growth of the
German real estate market, amid low yields elsewhere.
To better tap investors' appetite, Immofinanz will combine
Solaia's 18,000 housing units with its residential real estate unit
Buwog to float the combined entity, the people said. Immofinanz
will pay out 50% of the merged entity as a dividend-in-kind to its
own shareholders, they added.
A spokeswoman for Immofinanz declined to comment on the
matter.
Solaia is 60%-owned by Deutsche Bank's fund with co-investor
Prelios SpA holding the rest. For Prelios SpA, which is a spin-off
of tire maker Pirelli & C. SpA (PC.MI), the sale marks a
strategic shift towards becoming a purely commercial real estate
investor, without residential exposure.
The German real estate sector is in the spotlight at present,
with LEG Immobilien's initial public offering in July 2013 and
Deutsche Annington listing on the stock market in January last
year. Meanwhile, GSW Immobilien was removed from the MDAX after a
takeover by Deutsche Wohnen AG, while Prime Office REIT AG shares
were suspended from the market after a merger with OCM German Real
Estate Holding AG.
Write to Eyk Henning at eyk.henning@wsj.com
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