Allianz intends to sell EUR 3.5 bn of its real estate assets, about half of its German property portfolio, to fund acquisitions in property markets abroad, Dirk Grosse-Wördemann, head of Allianz's property business, told business newspaper the Financial Times. Europe's biggest insurance company is planning to reinvest the capital in international markets in a move aimed at diversifying the risk in its property portfolio.
Allianz intends to sell EUR 3.5 bn of its real estate assets, about half of its German property portfolio, to fund acquisitions in property markets abroad, Dirk Grosse-Wördemann, head of Allianz's property business, told business newspaper the Financial Times. Europe's biggest insurance company is planning to reinvest the capital in international markets in a move aimed at diversifying the risk in its property portfolio.
The German insurer owns assets valued at some EUR 7.5 bn. About 85% of the assets is in Germany, but the company wants the German assets to account only for 60% in the medium term. Allianz added that it is to sell two property portfolios worth a total of EUR 3.5 bn to institutional investors.
'We want to take advantage of favourable market conditions to reduce the predominance [of assets] in Germany and to reinvest in foreign property markets,' Grosse-Wördemann told the daily.
The two portfolios involve several of its main offices, including its Munich headquarters which Allianz plans to offer in a sale-and-lease-back transaction and a package of about 200 smaller properties valued at some EUR 2 bn. Investment bank Rothschild is managing the sale.
