Valad Europe to asset manage €325m German office portfolio

Investment manager Valad Europe has been appointed to asset manage the Bridge Portfolio of six office properties located across Germany.

The Bridge Portfolio forms part of the distressed Windermere X CMBS and was last valued at €325 mln.

The six properties were acquired by Eurocastle Investment from Deutsche Bank’s Grundbesitz-Invest fund in 2006 as part of a €2 bn deal involving 61 properties. In January of this year the portfolio was returned to the bank after the €372 mln credit facility on the package reached its maturity and was not extended. The loan subsequently went into special servicing.

The six office assets are the Alt Moabit 91 office (48,073 m2) in Berlin; the Galluspark office (44,278 m2) in Frankfurt; the Alfred-Herrenhausen-Allee 1 office (40,223 m2) in Eschbom; the Abraham-Lincoln-Park 1 office (29,740 m2) in Wiesbaden; the Am Unisys-Park 1 office (17,279 m2) in Sulzbach; and the Kaiserswerther Str. 117 - 119 office (11,953 m2) in Düsseldorf.

Valad Europe said it will implement a strategy to ‘maximise sustainable value in the portfolio and dispose of assets at the optimum time'. The strategy will be aimed at protecting and increasing rental income, reducing running costs, implementing targeted asset management initiatives and managing an orderly disposal programme.

Andreas Hardt, Valad Europe's head of Germany, commented: ‘We have been appointed with a clear remit to increase the weighted average lease term, reposition existing tenants and introduce new tenants, as well as maximise value through the disposal of either individual or portfolios of assets.’

The Bridge Portfolio mandate follows a string of similar CMBS and bank workouts in recent years across Europe totalling over €1.5 bn. Highlights include two German retail CMBS mandates, the Landmark and Dutch Offices I & II portfolios in the Netherlands, the Gemini CMBS mandate in the UK, the Kefren Properties portfolio in Sweden and the Ecrel portfolio across Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordics.

With a team of 37 in Germany, Valad Europe now manages some €900 mln of assets and 730 tenants in the country.