Italian insurer Poste Vita has joined forces with local independent asset manager Antirion Sgr to acquire the historic Königsbau Passagen mixed-use property located in the city center of Stuttgart, PropertyEU has learned.
The acquisition is being finalised with landlord Evans Randall for a price of €280 mln, according to sources familiar with the transaction.
The deal is believed to be part of a new partnership between Antirion and Poste Vita and is in line with the insurer’s strategy to diversify its portfolio to include international real estate investments. In 2016 the company – part of the public postal group Poste Italiane – also awarded a pan-European real estate investment mandate to invest in core Eurozone offices to UBS Asset Management.
It is the second international trophy asset buy carried out by Antirion in the recent past. In 2017 the fund manager bought half of Amazon's European headquarters in London (also known as Principal Place) from the Brookfield group for £245 mln.
First opened in 2006 as Stuttgart’s largest shopping centre, Königsbau Passagen was developed by HSH N Real Estate and Stilwerk in 2002 alongside the historic Königsbau building, built in 1856 and formerly home of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange. The building sits close to the main square - Schlossplatz - and the city's main shopping street - Königstrasse - and provides a total of 44,000 m2 of retail and office space over nine storeys above ground plus three basements providing 415 parking spaces. The property is almost entirely rented with global electronic retailer Saturn as main tenant with 60% of the retail space.
Privately-held UK investment banking and private equity group Evans Randall bought the shopping centre back in 2006 for €220 mln in its first deal ever in Germany. It has since restructured and extended the property with a high-end food court.
