Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva, has acquired the Altes Klöpperhaus office building in Hamburg from Barings.
Aviva will hold the property on behalf of one of its clients. Financial details were not disclosed.
The Altes Klöpperhaus offers 8,370 m2 of office space and is fully let. Built in 1902 for cotton dealer Wilhelm Klöpper, it is one of Hamburg’s most iconic Kontorhaus-type office buildings. The partly listed property, located on Rödingsmarkt 9 in Hamburg’s inner cityc was fully modernised in 2016.
Grégoire Bailly-Salins, head of transactions, Continental Europe, at Aviva Investors, said: 'Altes Klöpperhaus is a trophy building within the Hamburg market which we believe will provide good long-term performance for our clients.
'With core assets continuing to be highly sought-after by investors in the current market, we are delighted to add it to our portfolio of assets under management.'
Barings had bought the Altes Klöpperhaus just after refurbishment in 2016 and has since raised occupancy in the building from 87 to 100%. It was one of the first assets acquired for the Barings European core strategy.
Sascha Becker, managing director and country head Germany at Barings, said: 'Altes Klöpperhaus is a typical example where we bought off market from a developer with some upside through letting for one of our core strategies. The sale now has driven outperformance for our clients.
'We will continue to invest alongside or close forward transactions with developers in the logistics and residential space in Germany as well as investing in existing buildings.'
Gunther Deutsch, managing director Germany and head of transactions Europe at Barings, said: 'We have completed some transactions across Europe that were initially acquired with a core/core+ profile but have delivered value-add returns.
'This is mainly driven by rental growth initially identified by in-house research, lease-up strategies or positive overall market development. For our core and value-add investment strategies we are currently looking across Europe, mainly for office, logistics and residential sectors.'
In the transaction, Barings was advised by Ashurst. Savills, DLA Piper and CBRE advised Aviva.
