Benson Elliot has sold 700 units from its German residential TOR portfolio to LEG Immobilien.
The deal brings the number of assets sold from the portfolio it bought three years ago to 69 out of an original 80.
The opportunistic fund manager said the deal represented a rental yield of 6.8%, but did not disclose its value.
All of the 700 residential units in the deal are in North-Rhine Westphalia, and are part of the TOR portfolio Benson Elliot bought in 2012 out of receivership.
The portfolio originally held more than 3,000 residential and ancillary commercial units across Germany, and had secured a loan of around €187m to subsidiaries of Speymill Deutsche Immobilien Company.
The 2012 deal was a landmark in that it was one of the first resolutions of a defaulted CMBS portfolio loan in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Georg Strassner, principal and co-head of Germany at the firm, said: “We were confident at the time of purchase that quality residential assets like these – once stabilised – would prove attractive to buyers seeking reliable income in a low interest-rate environment.”
Benson Elliot said that since it bought the portfolio with joint venture partner Wertgrund Immobilien, it had reorganised management, established a capital expenditure plan and leasing strategy.
More than 1,000 leases have been signed on the properties and occupancy has climbed to 97% from 90%.
The properties are concentrated on prime metropolitan areas such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Cologne.
Including this latest sale, Benson Elliot said it had now realised more than €200m in sale proceeds from the TOR portfolio, and had sold 69 of the original 80 assets, or around 2,300 units.
Strassner said the firm now aimed to wind down the remaining assets from the TOR portfolio in the near term.
The firm said its investors had received distributions so far of more than 150% of their invested capital, and added that there was “significant additional value embedded in the remainder of the portfolio.”
