German realty group Wohnen to buy Barclays property portfolio for $1.55 bn
28 May 2012
German real estate group Deutsche Wohnen today agreed to buy the real estate portfolio BauBeCon Group from Barclays Bank Plc for around €1.24 billion ($1.55 billion).
The BauBeCon portfolio comprises around 23,500 residential units located in the metropolitan areas of Hanover, Braunschweig, Magdeburg and greater Berlin.
Barclays had acquired BauBeCon from Prelios SpA and Deutsche Bank AG's RREEF Real Estate, when the two companies were unable to repay a €1.3-billion loan provided by the London-based bank to fund their €1.67-billion acquisition of BauBeCon in 2007.
About 82 per cent of BauBeCon's residential units are located in metropolitan areas, with about 40 per cent of these in Hanover, Braunschweig and Magdeburg and 30 per cent of these in Greater Berlin.
Post acquisition, Deutsche Wohnen AG will enlarge its existing residential portfolio from currently 50,000 to around 73,500 residential units.
The acquisition will add to Deutsche Wohnen's holdings in Greater Berlin by about 6,500 residential units, while adding a new metropolitan area of Hanover / Braunschweig / Magdeburg, with about 9,000 residential units.
As of March 2012, the total annualised net rent contracted of the BauBeCon Group portfolio is around €95 million.
Frankfurt-based Deutsche Wohnen said it will use equity and debt to finance the deal.
