Pan-European real estate investment giant Patrizia has sold a retail portfolio totalling 68 properties in Germany to a fund managed by GPEP, a management platform specialised in supermarkets and retail parks across Germany.
Financial details were not disclosed, but media reports place the deal at around €230 mln.
The portfolio provides approximately 122,000 m2 of total rental space in established retail locations, which are anchored by German food retailers including Edeka, Lidl, Netto, Penny and Rewe.
'As one of the first institutional movers into the food retail sector, we are well placed to capitalise on the growing investor focus on the German market,' commented Daniel Herrmann, head of fund management retail at Patrizia.
Patrizia said it had increased the portfolio’s weighted average lease term significantly through a programme of active management, optimising value.
'This transaction is our first large scale disposal in the segment of supermarkets and discounters. We are pleased that growing numbers of German and international institutions see grocery assets as a key element in their investment strategy,' Herrmann added. 'Patrizia is still an active buyer in the German food retail market. Even with this sale we will have grown our assets under management in the sub-sector over the last 18 months. We continue to look for future investments, although we do so selectively and only where we see the opportunity to deliver strong returns.'
Patrizia manages more than €7 bn in the retail sector throughout Europe with the majority invested in the German food retail sector.
Colliers International and K+L Gates Berlin advised Patrizia on the sale.
