US private equity firm Cerberus has bought two portfolios consisting of 19 retail assets in Germany in a bid to boost its footprint in the German real estate market.
US private equity firm Cerberus has bought two portfolios consisting of 19 retail assets in Germany in a bid to boost its footprint in the German real estate market.
The portfolios were bought in two separate transactions. An affiliate of Cerberus acquired the Phoenix portfolio, consisting of nine shopping centres with a combined floor space of 92,000 m2, from Wells Fargo.
In addition, affiliates of Cerberus purchased 10 German retail properties - known as the Monsoon portfolio - out of administration.
The Phoenix portfolio was divested in a private sale, enabling Wells Fargo to remove the non-performing loans associated with these properties from its balance sheet. The insolvency administrator was BBL Bernsau Brockdorff & Partners.
The ten retail properties in the Monsoon portfolio were purchased by Cerberus affiliates on an all-cash basis through a multi-level tendering procedure led by Dutch insolvency administrator Barend de Roy van Zuidewijn of law firm AKD. The properties have a combined floor space of 263,677 m2.
Acrest Property Group has been engaged to coordinate asset management, letting and property development for properties in both the Phoenix and Monsoon portfolios.
Lee Millstein, senior managing director at Cerberus, said: 'The acquisition of these portfolios further enhances Cerberus's footprint in the German real estate market. These mutually beneficial transactions enabled the sellers to obtain fair value, while providing us with the opportunity to inject fresh capital and spearhead the turnaround of the properties.'
Cerberus has been an active investor in Germany since 2002. In 2012, the firm acquired the 300,000 square meter Rebound portfolio of 47 retail and mixed-use properties from FMS Wertmanagement. And earlier in the year, Cerberus acquired the distressed assets of Speymill Deutsche Immobilien Company.
