Brack Capital finalist in German EUR 3.4bn property tender

Brack Capital Real Estate is one of three finalists in the tender to buy the property portfolio of Germany's Landesentwicklungsgesellschaft (LEG), owned by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, according to a newspaper report. If the company wins the tender it will pay EUR 3.4 bn for the portfolio of 93,000 rental apartments in the state.

North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's wealthiest state, with 18 million residents, and accounts for 22% of Germany's total GDP. The state government has decided to privatize assets, including LEG, the state government's public housing arm.

Newspaper Financial Times Deutschland said that Annington, owned by UK buyout firm Terra Firma, and Whitehall, controlled by Goldman Sachs, reached the second round in the tender which closed a few days ago. The State government decided to close the sale of debt-laden LEG by the spring of 2008.

Brack Capital, which is owned by Shimon Weintraub, declined to comment on the report.

Brack Capital was de-listed from Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2005 after a buy-out by the controlling shareholders. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam and owns properties in the US, Europe, Russia, China, and India. It has invested $7 bn (EUR 4.8 bn) to buy 2.8 million m² of office, commercial and residential space. In Israel, it owns the building rights to the Marina Island in Herzliya.