Aegila Capital Management has made its first deal in Germany with the acquisition of the RellingHaus office complex from Union Investment for €145m.

The newly formed real estate investment firm said it completed an agreement in which Union Investment has sold RellingHaus in Essen to entities advised by Aegila.

The property is comprised of seven interconnected buildings up to twenty-one storeys in height. The property has around 56,000sqm and 900 underground parking spaces.

The transaction is Aegila’s second investment in continental Europe after its acquisition of Unilever’s global headquarters in Rotterdam in May.

Launched in 2017, the London-based company - backed by financial institutions Osool Asset Management BSC and BBK BSC, plans to buy around $1bn (€836.2m) worth of assets in the next three years.

Giovanni Gregoratti, CEO of Aegila, said: “This is a very solid first German deal for Aegila and it’s consistent with our strategy to focus on European real estate investment opportunities that benefit from attractive and resilient income profiles combined with potential value creation through active asset management.

“RellingHaus is a high quality, well-managed property in an attractive market with a rapidly growing economy and strong demographic trends. We plan to continue to leverage our experience of investing in the intersections of the real estate market that traditional funds find difficult to enter – in order to deliver attractive returns to our investors.”

Union Investment acquired the property in 2004 for the account of its open-ended real estate fund, UniImmo: Global.

Martin Schellein, the head of Union Investment Real Estate’s investment management in Europe, said: “RellingHaus has generated stable rental income for the UniImmo: Global fund over a long period of time. After the sale of RellingHaus, we will remain active in the Rhine-Ruhr region, catering to a large number of real estate funds for private and institutional investors.”

Following the sale of the Property, Union Investment will retain four other commercial properties in Essen worth over €420m, including the Limbecker Platz shopping centre.

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