Listed German property investor Patrizia Immobilien has acquired the Scandinavian owner of more than 13,500 German and 500 Swedish apartments in a transaction with a gross asset value of €900 mln.

Listed German property investor Patrizia Immobilien has acquired the Scandinavian owner of more than 13,500 German and 500 Swedish apartments in a transaction with a gross asset value of €900 mln.

Patrizia said it plans to make the residential portfolio available to its customers and third parties as a potential investment once the transaction is finalised.

In recent years the company has specialised in organising mega residential and commercial property portfolio acquisitions in Germany on behalf of institutional consortiums. It took this transaction on to its own books first due to the complexity of having to obtain acceptance for its offer from a large majority of the 8,400 Norwegian and Swedish owners of the fund that owned the portfolio.

Patrizia submitted a takeover bid on 15 April 2015 to the 8,400 fund owners from Norway and Sweden. By 18 May 2015, at least 83.1% of the Norwegian and at least 52.5% of the Swedish fund owners had accepted the offer. 'There was great willingness among the fund owners to part with their units. We submitted an extremely fair offer for these,' Patrizia CEO Wolfgang Egger said.

'We were only able to conclude this transaction successfully because, firstly, we have continuously improved our financial standing in recent years and now have a well above-average equity base,' said Egger. 'Secondly, Patrizia has highly qualified in-house teams who have a great deal of experience with complex transactions, financing and real estate valuations.'

Portfolio
The apartment portfolio was previously held by the Swedish fund, Hyresbostäder i Sverige III Gul. Some 67.4% of the fund is owned by the Norwegian Boligutleie Holding III, and 32.6% is owned by the Swedish Hyresfastigheter Holding III Gul. The Scandinavian real estate fund was established in 2005 and was most recently managed by the Obligo Investment Management company, based in Oslo.

On the basis of 100% of equity, the gross asset value of the portfolio is €900 mln. Alongside Berlin, where more than 5,000 apartments are located, the portfolio covers the metropolitan regions of Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Hamburg, as well as almost all regional capitals and metropolitan areas in West Germany. The portfolio also includes 500 residential units in Umea, Sweden. Patrizia said that the residential portfolio is in good technical condition with a vacancy rate of less than 4%.