EXCLUSIVE: More details on IVG's acquisition of Gallileo in Frankfurt

German listed company IVG Immobilien has acquired a 135-metre office tower in Frankfurt in a club deal on behalf of South Korean institutional investors.

The Gallileo office tower comprises total rental space of just under 40,000 m2 and is let on a long-term basis to Commerzbank, the vendor of the property.

The parties involved agreed not to disclose the purchase price but market rumours suggest it was about €250 mln.

Commerzbank was represented by BNP Paribas and Clifford Chance, while CBRE, GSK / Linklaters, Arcadis and Jones Lang LaSalle (valuation) acted as advisors to the buyer.

Gallileo was completed in 2004 and is located directly on the corner of Gallusanlage and Kaiserstrasse, not far from Frankfurt central railway station and the banking district. Prior to Commerzbank’s acquisition of Dresdner Bank in 2008, the property was used as the Dresdner Bank group headquarters along with the Silver Tower, also in Frankfurt.

Germany's largest listed company also led the consortium acquisition of the iconic Silver Tower (Silberturm) building in November 2011. Although financial details were kept confidential, the property is said to be valued at over €400 mln.

IVG is acting as investment, asset and fund manager for the Gallileo club deal, the latest in a series of transactions for institutional investors in the form of individual mandates and club deals. Since January 2012, IVG has invested €1.3 bn as part of such deals.

‘This transaction represents a pioneering landmark for the IVG investment and asset management platform in our internationalisation strategy. IVG is the first provider to successfully gain South Korean institutional investors for an investment of this kind in a club deal in Germany,’ said Wolfgang Schäfers, CEO of IVG Immobilien.

‘With this reference, our goal now is to raise additional equity in Asia and other international capital markets and invest in German and European properties,’ he added.