Swiss Life buys German office portfolio for €370m

Swiss Life Asset Managers is buying a portfolio of German office assets from Deka Investment.

German real estate manager Corpus Sireo, owned by Swiss Life since 2014, is investing in the Stella office portfolio for €370m.

The deal will close in the first quarter of next year.

The 26-asset portfolio is spread across Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Munich, as well as secondary cities such as Dresden, Bonn and Hanover.

Stefan Mächler, group CIO at Swiss Life, said: “The acquisition of the portfolio underlines our long-term growth strategy and enables us to offer our customers access to attractive and broadly diversified real estate fund solutions.”

The 221,000sqm portfolio includes 178,000sqm of rented office space.

Vacancy is 11%.

Most of the properties will be added to funds held by Swiss Life Asset Managers, while part of the portfolio, consisting of properties requiring management, will be offered to international investors for co-investment.

Roy Brümmer, managing director and head of acquisitions at Corpus Sireo Asset Management, said: “We have secured the portfolio in a fiercely competitive market and thus been able this year to acquire not only many individual properties but also a major commercial real estate portfolio for our investors.

“Our task is now to integrate the properties in our fund structures and investment vehicles and to manage them for investors with the long-term aim of optimising value.”

Swiss Life bought Corpus Sireo, which owns and manages €16bn in real estate, from three German savings banks, or Sparkassen, for €210m in 2014.