Italian insurance giant Generali has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to advise on the sale of a €1 bn European portfolio of real estate assets known as Stardust.
Italian insurance giant Generali has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to advise on the sale of a €1 bn European portfolio of real estate assets known as Stardust.
The disposal, which is still at a preliminary stage, is expected to be finalised before the end of the year.
The package is believed to include 69 buildings in Germany, France, Austria and Italy, providing a total space of 300,000 m2 and generating some €50 mln in rents a year.
Four parties including Germany's Patrizia, CBRE Global Investors and UBS are believed to have submitted preliminary non-binding offers for the portfolio.
The news comes in the same week as the resignation of Generali's real estate head Christian Delaire.Generali announced on Thursday that Delaire had resigned from his role as CEO of the real estate arm. Delaire was just two years in the job.
The company's board appointed Francesco Benvenuti as temporary general manager with immediate effect. Benvenuti also retains his current position of the group's chief operating officer for investment.
Generali Real Estate had €27 bn of assets under management throughout Continental Europe, the UK, Asia and the US at end-June 2015.
Delaire joined Generali Real Estate in 2014. Prior to that, he was the CEO of pan-European real estate fund manager AEW Europe. Before that he served 15 years with AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (now AXA Investment Management - Real Assets). His last position at AXA's real estate business was as global chief investment officer. Previous positions at AXA included head of transactions France, head of asset management France, and global head of corporate finance.
