Patrizia Immobilien has sold its Süddeutsche Wohnen Group to Deutsche Annington for €1.9bn.
The portfolio of 19,800 apartments had been owned by Patrizia since early 2012, when it bought SÜDEWO from LBBW on behalf of a group of pension funds and insurers.
The consortium consisted of Swedish buffer fund AP3 (25%), an unnamed Swiss pension fund (5%), three German first-pillar pension funds (25%), five German insurers (40%), a savings bank (3%) and Patrizia itself (2%).
Patrizia said the decision to sell followed an “unsolicited offer” for the portfolio, in which it has invested €89m since purchase.
Wolfgang Egger, chief executive at Patrizia, said recent transactions allowed the company to increase liquidity in a way that “creates value without having to ask shareholders for fresh funds”.
The company said it had also increased its earnings forecast.
Operating profit, previously expected to grow by around 10% from €50.2m, could now reach €200m this year and next, it said.
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