German lenders Westimmo and DG Hyp booked an increase in their new commercial real estate business in 2009, according to PropertyEU’s annual survey of the top financiers in Europe. Westimmo showed the strongest growth, with new loan production rising 13% to EUR 6.2 bn from EUR 5.5 bn in 2008. DG Hyp saw its new business grow by 11% to EUR 4.2 bn from EUR 3.8 bn.

German lenders Westimmo and DG Hyp booked an increase in their new commercial real estate business in 2009, according to PropertyEU’s annual survey of the top financiers in Europe. Westimmo showed the strongest growth, with new loan production rising 13% to EUR 6.2 bn from EUR 5.5 bn in 2008. DG Hyp saw its new business grow by 11% to EUR 4.2 bn from EUR 3.8 bn.

All other leading German financiers saw new loan production fall significantly in 2009, by between 17% and 96%. Eurohypo tops the league of top 10 German lenders, but saw its production fall by almost 30% year-on-year to EUR 10 bn. In total, the top 10 German lenders generated EUR 45.4 bn in new business last year, a decline of 30% on the EUR 64 bn reported in 2008.

Despite the overall fall in new business, German lenders have remained active across Europe. In the first half of 2010, they took part in 15 of the top 20 financing deals outside their home country. The UK drew the greatest interest with German lenders taking part in five major deals there, followed by France (3), Poland (2) and the Netherlands (1).

The prominence of German lenders in the European financing market is attributed partly to the strength of the Pfandbrief (covered bond) system which gives them access to secure collateral. With a few notable exceptions such as Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (formerly Hypo Real Estate) and Eurohypo many were not as badly bruised by the global financial crisis as some of their larger Anglo-Saxon peers. In an interview with PropertyEU, Claus-Jürgen Cohausz, board member of Westimmo, pointed out that WestImmo had not been one of the banks to embrace financial engineering wholesale.

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