The company, which is owned by buyout fund Activum SG Capital Management, has hired Deutsche Bank (>> Deutsche Bank) to evaluate options including a potential initial public offering (IPO) or outright sale, the people added.

An IPO, which could give the group a market capitalisation of more than 500 million euros (438.59 million pounds), may take place as early as November, one of the sources said.

Instone has been formed by a merger of Formart, a former unit of German builder Hochtief (>> Hochtief) which Activum bought in 2014 for roughly 300 million euros, and peer GRK.

According to statistics published on the Bundesbank website, German residential property prices in 127 large German cities have surged 41.4 percent between 2011 and 2016.

Activum was not immediately available for comment. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

(Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Christoph Steitz)

Stocks treated in this article : Deutsche Bank, Hochtief