IVG Immobilien has postponed an initial public offering for its €3 bn German office unit, Officefirst Immobilien, citing 'negative market developments'.
IVG said in a statement that it decided to postpone the IPO, which had been planned for this Friday, 'despite generally posiive feedback received throughout investor meetings with regard to Officefirst group's business model and real estate portfolio'.
It blamed negative market developments in the real estate sector 'since the commencement of the marketing period' at the beginning of last week.
IVG spun off its office portfolio into a stand-alone entity in June this year. At the time, CEO Michiel Jaski billed the move as a way to 'fully exploit our entrepreneurial potential that is a solid basis for our company.'
In September PropertyEU learned that a potential sale of the office unit to private equity firm Blackstone had collapsed.
Officefirst is one of the biggest office portfolios in Germany, comprising 97 properties in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart. The portfolio also includes The Squaire office development at Frankfurt airport. The occupancy rate stood at 91.6% at 31 March 2016 and the total annualized in-place rent was around €207 mln at the end of the first quarter 2016.
The listing of the shares on the Prime Standard of the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) was originally slated for October 14 2016, but a new date has not been set.
IVG concluded by saying that, alongside Officefirst, it would 'continue to evaluate the market environment regarding a potential IPO in the future'.
