Le mie ricette per la real estate communityWarburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH looks back on a prosperous financial year 2019 as it continues to follow its growth trajectory. At the end of 2019, the assets under management totalled 11.2 billion euros (2018: 8.2 billion euros). The AIFM company (German “KVG”) currently manages a portfolio of 68 investment funds (2018: 56 funds). The time-weighted rate of return (BVI method) across funds equalled 8.0 percent p.a. (2018: 8.0 percent). Transactions by Warburg-HIH Invest last year had a volume of 2.7 billion euros. The total breaks down into 2.29 billion euros in acquisitions and 362 million euros in sales.
“We owe the growth to our broad-based product spectrum for institutional investors. In addition to products that are already subject to keen demand, such as pool funds, single mandates and club deals, our clients are increasingly interested in services in the multi-manager business,” said Alexander Eggert, Managing Director at Warburg-HIH Invest. “Pooling and administrating direct and indirect real estate equity investments gives investors an opportunity to raise hidden reserves and to join us as we invest in other markets and types of use.”
“In addition to office properties, we consider logistics and grocery retail assets promising investments. Demand for logistics real estate has remained very stable. Moreover, the local amenities sector, specifically in grocery retailing, continues to offer attractive distribution yields of about 5.0 percent annually. It gives investors an opportunity to keep earning the same level of returns as they did a few years ago,” said Hans-Joachim Lehmann, Managing Director at Warburg-HIH Invest. “In addition, we keep seeing attractive opportunities for investing in the office sector of German growth cities. The fact has prompted us to launch a follow-up product to our ‘Deutschland Selektiv’ concept.”
Warburg-HIH Invest also expanded in other European countries in 2019. Outside Germany, the company achieved a transaction volume of 609 million euros, out of which c. 569 million euros represent acquisitions. The transactions involved six countries other than Germany, most of them located in Eastern Europe. For instance, Warburg-HIH Invest acquired the assets River Garden 1 in Prague with a gross lettable area of 19,000 square metres and White House in Budapest with a gross lettable area of 22,300 square metres. On top of that, Warburg-HIH Invest advised a Korean investor on the purchase of the FENIKS office building in Warsaw. In Western Europe, Warburg-HIH Invest supported the acquisition of the Edge Amsterdam West project by Korean investors. The office scheme, which has 52,800 square metres of lettable area, is undergoing redevelopment to be comprehensively overhauled and restructured. Its completion is scheduled for March 2021.
Pictured : left Alexander Eggert, right Hans-Joachim Lehmann (copyright: Thies Raetzke)
Source : Warburg-HIH Real Estate