Pension and insurance group Swiss Life is acquiring Germany's Corpus Sireo as it moves to create a real estate platform with over 1,000 staff managing €36 bn of real estate assets across four countries.
Pension and insurance group Swiss Life is acquiring Germany's Corpus Sireo as it moves to create a real estate platform with over 1,000 staff managing €36 bn of real estate assets across four countries.
Zurich-based Swiss Life is paying €210 mln for Corpus Sireo, the Cologne-headquartered property services provider with €16.5 bn of assets under management and a 560-strong team.
The sellers of the company are three German savings banks: Sparkasse KölnBonn (50%), Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf (25%) and Frankfurter Sparkasse (25%).
Pending regulatory approval, the transaction will be completed in the second half of 2014. The acquisition will have retroactive effect from 1 January 2014.
€36 BN PLATFORM
Swiss Life had CHF 206 bn (€170 bn) of assets under management at end-June 2014. The pensions and insurance company has real estate investment management businesses in Switzerland and France.
The Corpus Sireo takeover will now make it a leading real estate asset manager in Germany, and give it a €36 bn platform with over 1,000 staff. Swiss Life has 450 real estate experts in Switzerland; Corpus Sireo's team of 550 staff working in 11 offices across Germany and Luxembourg and 30 professionals in France.
'This acquisition is an important step to extending our position as a leading provider in one of our core strategic areas, real estate asset management, from Switzerland and France to Germany,' said Patrick Frost, CEO of the Swiss Life Group. 'Given our more than 150 years of experience in the real estate business and the additional expertise contributed by the 550 employees of Corpus Sireo, we are confident that we will be able to successfully expand this business area further.'
According to the group's website, Swiss Life REIM (Switzerland) is responsible for the entire management of the directly (Swiss Life) and indirectly (Swissville) held real estate portfolios in Switzerland as well as the asset management for third-party real estate vehicles, and coordinates the group-wide management of real estate. The Swiss business, comprising Swiss Life REIM and facility management subsidiary Livit, had CHF 18.6 bn (€15.3 bn) of assets under management at end-2013.
The French business is based around the former real estate investment manager Viveris which Swiss Life took over in 2011 and rebranded as Swiss Life REIM (France) in May this year. The business manages 23 real estate vehicles and had €4.5 bn of assets under management at end-December 2013.
Swiss Life said that the Corpus Sireo takeover will now make it a leading real estate asset manager in Germany. 'This acquisition is an important step to extending our position as a leading provider in one of our core strategic areas, real estate asset management, from Switzerland and France to Germany,' said Patrick Frost, CEO of the Swiss Life Group. 'Given our more than 150 years of experience in the real estate business and the additional expertise contributed by the 550 employees of Corpus Sireo, we are confident that we will be able to successfully expand this business area further.'
EXPANSION PLANS
Corpus Sireo was founded in 1995 and has since evolved from a regional real estate brokerage company into the leading German independent real estate service provider, winning a number of awards over the past years as the top real estate asset management service provider in Germany.
The company provides real estate services for third parties through its 11 branch offices in Germany and Luxembourg. It manages €16.5 bn in real estate assets and generates revenues of €160 mln. Its customers include investors, banks, and companies with proprietary real estate portfolios.
'With the globally focused Swiss Life as its new owner, Corpus Sireo will be able to further develop its business systematically and enter new markets. To this end we would also like to give greater consideration again to co-investments. We are looking forward to taking the next steps in our development alongside Swiss Life,' said Corpus Sireo spokesman Ralph Gunther.