Patrizia Immobilien, the German listed investment and fund manager, has submitted four transactions, one each for 2012 to 2015, for consideration in PropertyEU's Deal of the Decade Awards.
For 2012, Patrizia has lodged the €1.4 bn acquisition of LBBW Immobilien and its 21,000 residential units. The portfolio covered all major cities in Baden-Württemberg, including Stuttgart, Mannheim and Freiburg.
As the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) received state aid during the financial crisis, it was forced to privatise its housing company, LBBW Immobilien, by the end of 2012. In 2011, Patrizia participated successfully in the competitive auction process alongside with a club of 13 co-investors, mainly insurance companies, pension funds and savings banks from Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. Patrizia says the transaction was the first of this magnitude and complexity after the financial crisis and the first club deal of German and international investors ever. Three years later Patrizia sold the portfolio to listed German peer Vonovia for €1.9 bn.
Patrizia's second entry concerns its acquisition of 85 food-anchored retail properties via a liquidation process in Germany during 2013.
The former owner Deikon (formerly Boetzelen) had assembled the portfolio of assets - let to blue-chip tenants such as Edeka, Rewe and Lidl - during the last boom but fell into bankruptcy in 2012 and the administrator subsequently ordered the sale of properties. Patrizia and a German life insurer emerged as winners from the competitive bidding process. The investment volume was €177 mln.
The 2014 submission is the acquisition of Project Wilhelmina, some 5,500 residential units owned by Dutch housing company Vestia. The investment volume was €570 mln.
Patrizia said that the transaction could be seen as a test case, as this was the first time a Dutch housing corporation was allowed to sell to a non-housing corporation entity. 'After this transaction the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment (responsible for housing) opened up the investment market in social housing.'
The fourth submission centres on Patrizia's acquisition of the London home of wax museum Madame Tussauds in London on behalf of Taiwanese insurer Fubon Life for €466 mln last year.
The transaction was one of the largest asset deals in London in 2015 and Patrizia's largest single-asset deal so far. The deal also received international media attention due to its size and the building's historical importance and recognition.
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PropertyEU has now collected over 90 submissions for the Deal of the Decade Awards. In the coming weeks, our project team will be drawing up a shortlist for the different categories ahead of a readers’ vote in the autumn. There will also be a formal jury vote. The Deal of the Decade Awards will be presented during a ceremony in Amsterdam in December.
