Austria's Immofinanz is considering an initial public offering of its Buwog residential property arm in the future, the Vienna-listed property firm said.
Austria's Immofinanz is considering an initial public offering of its Buwog residential property arm in the future, the Vienna-listed property firm said.
In a statement to announce Immofinanz' withdrawal from the GBW sale process, CEO Eduard Zehetner reiterated the company's plans to expand the housing business, both through acquisitions and via its own development projects in Germany.
'This strategy also includes a possible IPO for Buwog in the future,' he noted.
Immofinanz is on a mission to invest around €1.5 bn in Germany's residential market this year. 'We are undergoing a re-orientation. German resi is sexy. It's sexy because everyone is betting against the euro. Investors like it, they think it's attractive. Now, it has become one of our most important asset classes,' Zehetner told PropertyEU during the Expo Real trade fair in Munich last October.
Institutional investor appetite for residential properties is growing. Last week, Düsseldorf-based property group LEG Immobilien raised more than €1.3 bn in the second largest German IPO in five years, with shares priced in the middle of the expected range at €44.
The deal, which marks the largest European property IPO since Russia's $1.85 bn PIK Group floatation in 2007, was around four times oversubscribed.
The IPO is expected to have a positive knock-on effect on the market, following an uncharacteristically quiet year in 2012, which marked the second-worst year for IPOs since the onset of the financial crisis.
Germany's residential sector is going from strength to strength, with portfolio transactions up around 70% to €11.1 bn in 2012, according to JLL, due to strong demand on the part of investors to tap into what is widely-viewed as Europe's most stable economy.
