Patrizia Immobilien, the global pan-European real estate investment firm, has acquired a portfolio of 27 retail properties across Germany from Marathon Asset Management for around €100 mln.
The Augsburg, Germany-headquartered firm has made the investment on behalf of its Patrizia Retail Opportunity SCS fund, increasing the portfolio of retail assets it manages across Europe to around €8.3 bn.
In Germany alone the company has a retail investment portfolio of €5.1 bn, making it one of the largest and most active retail investors and one of the most important landlords in the country.
The portfolio, which comprises around 55,600 sq m of total lettable space, is made up of retail parks and grocery stores and has a 98% focus on properties with food anchor tenants. Current occupancy is high at 99%, with a weighted average lease term of 9.2 years with future potential for rental growth. The tenant structure of the portfolio is dominated by the four largest German food retailer chains – Rewe Group, Edeka-Verbund, Schwarz-Gruppe and Aldi – which provide three quarters of the rental income.
Patrizia Retail Opportunity is a Luxembourg special fund launched in 2016, which targets core and core-plus retail properties with stable income distribution yields.
Daniel Herrmann, head of fund management retail, said the portfolio had potential for sustained income growth, and would ‘significantly optimise the risk-return profile’ of the fund.
‘At the same time, we are acquiring modern, well-located properties with excellent tenants from the food retail sector and which occupy a dominant position in their respective catchment areas,’ he explained.
Patrizia believes it is Europe’s biggest investor in supermarkets having invested a total of €639 mln into the sector in the past two years. Rivals in the sector include TLG Immobilien, Universal-Investment and Generali Group.
