US private equity group Cerberus Capital Management and German property group Corpus Sireo are jointly bidding for Speymill’s distressed portfolio of 26,000 German residential units which is expected to fetch around EUR 1 bn, sources close to the deal told PropertyEU on Monday.
US private equity group Cerberus Capital Management and German property group Corpus Sireo are jointly bidding for Speymill’s distressed portfolio of 26,000 German residential units which is expected to fetch around EUR 1 bn, sources close to the deal told PropertyEU on Monday.
Cerberus is understood to have confirmed at Mipim last week that it is in exclusive discussions with its partner Corpus Sireo to acquire Speymill’s ‘Hawk’ portfolio. A Corpus Sireo spokeswoman told PropertyEU that although the firm ‘will indeed consider co-investments for 2012’, it could not comment on individual deals. Cerberus could not be reached for comment.
The deal is expected to close shortly, someone familiar with the deal told PropertyEU.
Speymill Deutsche Immobilien filed for bankruptcy 18 months ago. Since then, its residential units have sparked a lot of interest among both private equity groups and German property firms. Receiver for the portfolio Ernst & Young confirmed to PropertyEU that Speymill had invested in almost 26,000 properties - mainly residential - via a series of subsidiaries registered to the Isle of Man. A spokesman for Ernst & Young declined to comment further on the sale. However, the first rounds of bids are believed to have been submitted last November.
There has already been one sizeable residential portfolio sale in Germany this year: last month, German real estate investment company Patrizia Immobilien acquired Landesbank Baden-Württemberg’s (LBBW) portfolio of 21,000 residential units in a joint venture for EUR 1.43 bn. Other sizeable portfolios are also expected to be brought to market, including the GBW Gruppe portfolio of 32,000 residential units owned by state-owned bank BayernLB. A BayernLB spokesman told PropertyEU last month that the bank was mulling a possible sale to a consortium of Bavarian ‘Kommunen’ or counties, which could include granting them a temporary exclusivity period in which to make an offer. No deadline has been set for the sale.
