GERMANY – Commerz Real has sold its real estate Spezialfonds business to Internos, the UK-headquartered company that recently moved into the Spezialfonds market.

The German company said it wanted to sell Commerz Real Spezialfondsgesellschaft, which has €1.6bn in assets under management, because it was “less profitable” than other subsidiaries.

“Providers like Internos that are focused on the Spezialfonds market have a competitive advantage,” Commerz Real said.

Internos – which has built up approximately €2bn in assets under management since its inception in 2008, most of which were derived from its takeover of GPT Halverton in 2009 – issued its first German Spezialfonds in 2012 to invest in hotels via its German KAG subsidiary.

The Commerz Real Spezialfonds portfolio comprises 68 European office, retail, hotel and logistics assets and was sold to an unnamed Internos subsidiary for an undisclosed sum.

According to Commerz Real, the shares in grid operator Amprion it bought in 2011 for a consortium of Versorgungswerke were not part of the deal.

The company said it would stay committed to the institutional market by investing via club deals, especially in infrastructure, which it “continues to see as an attractive asset class”.

Commerz Real’s parent company Commerzbank had announced in July last year that it wanted to get out of property and ship financing and restructure the real estate subsidiary.

The sale still has to be approved by the supervisory body BaFin.