CGI Sells German Real Estate Block with a Volume of Euro 526 Million

Committed to the goal of further optimising its real estate portfolio, Commerz Grundbesitz-Investmentgesellschaft (CGI), a member of Commerz Grundbesitz Group (CGG), has sold a block of German fund real estate out of the hausInvest europa open-end property fund which the company manages. The package has a total value of Euro 526 million, and was sold to Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund (MSREF).
One of the positive effects of the ongoing portfolio optimisation is the rejuvenation of the fund real estate, as the objects included in this block have been part of the portfolio for an average of 20 years. The sale has also raised the tenancy quota within the fund as the real estate sold showed an overall vacancy of 34%.
The real estate at issue represents 29 hausInvest europa fund objects located in the Rhine-Main area, the Rhine-Ruhr area, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Lübeck.
“Against the background of the currently sound economic situation on the real estate market, we have seized the opportunity to streamline the portfolio of hausInvest europa,” says Dr. Frank Pörschke, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of CGG.
“Especially over the past 10 years, the Fund strategy has been subject to incremental changes. By now, the Fund concentrates on larger objects in the central business districts of European metropolises. That is why the objects just sold no longer matched the present Fund strategy,” Pörschke added.
For the sales process, CGI relied on the expert advise provided by the brokerage firm of CB Richard Ellis and the law offices of Clifford Chance.
“The extra cash flushed into the fund by the sales will be available for new acquisitions, and will in turn boost our activity toward new investments. As far as the real estate group as a whole goes, we are planning real estate acquisitions with a volume of more than Euro 2 billion worldwide,” Pörschke emphasised.


A Word on Commerz Grundbesitz Group
Founded in 2001, Commerz Grundbesitz Group counts among the global leaders in real estate asset management, managing public open-end property funds along with open-end institutional property funds and REITs. The Group currently manages real estate with a volume of more than Euro 13 billion worldwide. With foreign real estate assets worth more than Euro 10 billion, and a gross lettable area of approximately 3.5 million m2, Commerz Grundbesitz Group is one of the largest European real estate investment houses.
The Group includes Commerz Grundbesitz-Investment GmbH (CGI), a capital investment company founded in 1992, which manages the Group’s retail funds. Among these, hausInvest europa represents the market leader in the open-end property funds industry, having a Fund volume of more than Euro 8 billion. In March of 2004, CGI started hausInvest global, an open-end fund with investments worldwide and a fund volume now worth more than Euro 1.1 billion. The market share of CGI in the overall volume of mutual real estate funds currently exceeds 12%. So far, more than 450,000 investors have invested in CGI funds.