Private equity firm Pramerica last week sold German residential real estate firm Deutsche WohnAnlage (DeWag) to US firm Archstone for €518m. It completed the sale on behalf of unidentified institutional investors that have helped it acquire 91% of the firm over the past five years.
DeWag acquires and re-sells residential real estate in major metropolitan areas of southern and western Germany. The firm has grown from 200 units in 2001 to 6,100 in 35 locations when the sale was announced last week.
“Five years is a reasonable time for us,” said Pramerican CEO Jonathan Short. “It was exciting when we invested five years ago because it was tiny. It’s grown and we’re selling it on to a quoted, strategic investor.”
However, Short said the firm would seek new investments in the German real estate market “given the right management”.
“If we saw another German firm with a quality management team, we’d be interested,” he said.
DeWag and Archstone released only partial details of the deal ahead of its completion in July.
Pramerica is the real estate investment arm of US insurance giant Prudential Financial.
