Benson Elliot sells resi package to WBM

UK-based private equity real estate investor Benson Elliot has divested 390 units in the Silvertower portfolio to Berlin-based property company Wohnbaugesellschaft Berlin-Mitte (WBM).

The assets are the remaining properties from the Silvertower Portfolio, a portfolio of 720 multi-family residential units located in Berlin’s popular Friedrichshain district, which Benson Elliot Real Estate Partners II acquired in 2010 for €37 mln in a joint venture with Hirling Capital Investment Services.

The deal follows the sale of 50% of the portfolio in July 2012 to Akelius Berlin, the German subsidiary of Sweden-based Akelius Fastigheter.

After acquiring the portfolio, Benson Elliot undertook an asset management programme to maximise income and reduce voids. Pricing of the sales to WBM and Akelius is confidential; but the vendor said that the sales generated a return on the fund's investment of over 2x.

'The current market offers an increasing number of opportunities to acquire assets where we can apply our real estate expertise to the task of growing value; we are closely monitoring the market to take advantage of these when they become available,' said Philipp Braschel, principal at Benson Elliot.

Last year, Benson Elliot's third real estate fund acquired the Tor residential Portfolio, a multi-family portfolio of 80 properties with 3,100 units.

The transaction is an indication of the strength of Germany's residential investment market, which reported €5.66 bn of portfolio transactions comprising a total of 89,000 units, according to international real estate advisor Savills.

Some 60 investors were active on the buy-side in H1 2012 compared to over 70 in H1 2013 with a 40% rise in the number of transactions to 87. Private equity funds in particular sold residential real estate worth almost €300 mln throughout the first half of the year. Along with banks and developers they were among the three largest groups of vendors.