Issuing house Fondshaus Hamburga member of the Ahrenkiel Groupand Essen-based HOCHTIEF Solutions AG have jointly launched a new real estate investment company. The two owners each hold a 50% stake.
As they both announced in Hamburg on September 26, the new company, FHH Fondshaus Hamburg Immobilien (FHHI), will commence operations in the fourth quarter of 2012. Its core business will consist of issuing closed-end real estate funds and, in the medium-term future, structuring investments for institutional investors.
FHHI will operate autonomously on the market as a joint venture of the Ahrenkiel Group and HOCHTIEF Solutions AG and has been set up for the purpose with a share capital of 2 million. Fondshaus Hamburg will entrust administration of existing and future closed-end real estate funds to the new company together with asset and funds management. Incorporation of the new company is pending regulatory approval.
"We are pleased to be the first issuer of closed-end funds to join forces with the Real Estate Solutions segment of HOCHTIEF Solutions as partners on equal terms," explains Angelika Kunath, Managing Director of Fondshaus Hamburg.
"By teaming up in this way with the subsidiary of a highly reputable, MDAX-listed international player, we have made a key step on the road to becoming an integrated real estate company from being a pure-play funds issuer."
The new structure further enhances Fondshaus Hamburg's scope for securing real estate projects at a very early stage of development. Expansion of key account business will, of course, also continue, Kunath said. In this connection, the future Managing Director of FHHI emphasizes the need for absolute freedom in product selection: "We will continue to apply clearly defined investment criteria here as we always have in the past and, now as before, we will continue to work exclusively with experienced, sound real estate developers."
"We made a conscious decision in favor of Fondshaus Hamburg because we find the company's outstanding structuring expertise and marketing capability compelling. We expect to gain an attractive share in the financial rewards and access to new customers," says Dr. Christoph Husmann, Senior Executive Vice President of the Real Estate Solutions segment at HOCHTIEF Solutions AG, in explanation of the decision.
The segment, with its two business units HTP and formart, currently has 80 projects in progress worth a total of over 1.9 billion.
Fondshaus Hamburg Immobilien will initially have a workforce of about 20, growing to 27 in the medium term. HOCHTIEF Solutions will nominate a second managing director alongside Angelika Kunath during the course of the year.
Source: Hochtief
