Conwert Immobilien Invest : sells commercial property portfolio to HanseMerkur Grundvermögen

Vienna, 02 November 2016. conwert Immobilien Invest SE (conwert) announces that the purchase agreement for the previously announced sale of a commercial property portfolio to a real estate property special fund of HanseMerkur Grundvermögen has now been signed. The sold portfolio represents a large share of the conwert commercial property portfolio. The ownership of 34 office and retail properties in Austria and Germany with total usable space of around 200,000 sqm is thereby changing hands. The purchase price of €331 mn is slightly above the book value of the properties.

With this sale, conwert has divested around 40% of its non-core portfolio. The sale involves office and retail properties in major urban regions in Germany and Austria, including the business park Campus 21, south of Vienna, and retail properties held by conwert in southern Germany.

Dr. Wolfgang Beck, CEO of conwert, on the sale: 'Around a year ago, when I took office, we agreed to place our entire focus on residential property. The sale of 34 office and retail properties marks a major step towards a clearly focused residential property company with a core portfolio in strong metropolitan regions in Germany and Austria. We are thereby making very good progress in implementing our strategy to add value. We are well positioned to continue with the successful path conwert is pursuing'.

HanseMerkur Grundvermögen is acquiring the portfolio for the newly formed special fund HMG Grundwerte Chancen, launched on the service platform of the IntReal Real Estate Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH. Lutz Wiemer, Deputy Chairman of the Board of HanseMerkur Grundvermögen said: 'The acquisition of the portfolio has allowed us to achieve three key strategic milestones. We are once again significantly increasing the percentage accounted for by property in the HanseMerkur insurance group; we are expanding the existing portfolio with a more opportunistic option, and we are increasingly establishing ourselves as an asset manager for institutional co-investors who want to use HanseMerkur Grundvermögen as a professional investment platform together with the insurance group'.

At present there are six renowned institutional investors in addition to HanseMerkur investing in the newly launched, special open property fund.

M.M. Warburg & CO organises the fund raising from institutional investors and acts as custodian of the special funds. The acquisition process has been coordinated by ATOS Asset Management GmbH, which will take care of the asset and property management in the future.

The transaction is subject to the usual approval from the competition authorities. Closing is expected for year-end 2016.