Germany’s Alstria Office REIT is planning to spend up to EUR 220 mln on the acquisition of office properties in its home market in the coming few months. In an interview with PropertyEU during the EXPO REAL fair, CEO Olivier Elamine said that the company will use the EUR 50 mln in proceeds from a capital increase carried out in September exclusively to finance its acquisition plan.

Germany’s Alstria Office REIT is planning to spend up to EUR 220 mln on the acquisition of office properties in its home market in the coming few months. In an interview with PropertyEU during the EXPO REAL fair, CEO Olivier Elamine said that the company will use the EUR 50 mln in proceeds from a capital increase carried out in September exclusively to finance its acquisition plan.

‘We think this is the right time to re-start our investment programme,’ Emanine said. ‘We have fully refinanced our portfolio and we are now in a luxury position where we can take advantage of opportunities emerging in the office property market’. Earlier this year, the Hamburg-based company reached an agreement to refinance EUR 650 mln with a consortium of five banks - representing Europe's largest property refinancing deal so far this year, according to research by PropertyEU.

At present, the company has EUR 110 mln in cash available for new investments, which with gearing will give Alstria spending power of EUR 220mln. ‘We are looking at assets with a higher risk profile in Northern Germany and the Hamburg region, where we feel more confident because of our knowledge and position in the market. In other regions where we are trying to get a critical mass, we will be targeting core profile, fully let properties, or sale-and-leaseback operations. We are quite confident we will be able to make the first investment in the next three-four months,’ he said.