Swiss Life has acquired a prime office building in the centre of Hamburg through its German asset management arm Corpus Sireo.

Swiss Life has acquired a prime office building in the centre of Hamburg through its German asset management arm Corpus Sireo.

The purchase of the Neuer Dovenhof building from Kildare Partners is the first deal to be achieved with the assistance of Corpus Sireo since Swiss Life bought the German asset management services company in 2014. The asset was acquired in an off-market deal on behalf of AIF Delta Immo, a subsidiary of MAIF Group.

Located in the German city’s Kontorhausviertel, the 10-storey building has a lettable area of 22,000 m2, with retail units on the ground floor. The 30 tenants include Marsh, Hays, Michael Page and Aareal Bank.

'With this iconic building we perfectly met the strategy of our investor and pursue the development of its real estate portfolio with a goal of diversification, especially in terms of localization,' said Fabrice Lombardo, head of real estate funds and portfolio management at Swiss Life REIM (France).

'The German market still offers many opportunities, further acquisitions are currently under consideration, but we remain very selective.'

Pensions and insurance group Swiss Life’s takeover of Corpus Sireo last year gave it a strong foothold in the German real estate market and raised the group’s total assets under management to nearly €59 bn as of June 2015, making it Europe’s largest investor by AUM in PropertyEU’s rankings.

In July Swiss Life and Corpus Sireo launched their first joint real estate fund, Swiss Life REF (LUX) German Core Real Estate, with a target investment volume of €1 bn. The fund will focus on retail, office and residential properties in Germany’s ‘Big Seven’ cities.