The DB Real Estate Investment GmbH (Eschborn) has purchased the office building Tour Adria in Paris for its open-ended real estate fund grundbesitz-invest at a cost of approximately 380 million Euro from SITQ (a company of CDP Caisse de Dépot et Placement du Quebec) and Lucia (a company der Colony Capital).
The building just recently completed in the central office district La Défense offers approximately 54,000 mò of rental space as well as 608 parking spaces on 40 floors and 4 underground levels. The long-term tenant since the 1st of March 2003 is the French petrochemical engineering corporation Technip-Coflexip, a market leader in its industry with more than 18,000 employees worldwide and stock market listings in New York and Paris.
ââ¬ÅThe purchase of the Tour Adria is the largest real estate acquisition abroad for an open-ended real estate fund of the DB Real Estate until now,ââ¬Â explained Werner Welter, managing director of the DB Real Estate responsible for real estate acquisitions and the portfolio management. ââ¬ÅThis real estate deal was closed in only 4 weeks,ââ¬Â according to Welter. ââ¬ÅMore than 1,500 companies are located in La Défense and over 150,000 employees work in this district,ââ¬Â noted Welter, ââ¬Åamong them, 17 of the 50 largest corporations worldwide and three-quarters of the leading French companies.ââ¬Â In his opinion, this district of Paris is currently one of the most significant office locations in Europe and will maintain its status in the future.
ââ¬ÅThis investment significantly impacts the structure of the real estate portfolio of grundbesitz-invest ââ¬" in a positive way,ââ¬Â explained Welter. The substantial cash inflows of the past months enable open-ended real estate funds to enter unknown dimensions regarding the acquisition values of properties.
The investment in properties with a different range of market values is also an element of the ââ¬â¢risk diversificationââ¬â¢ product characteristic of open-ended real estate funds. The Tour Adria represents a share of approximately 6 percent of the real estate assets of the fund, which currently encompasses a value of approximately 8,9 billion Euro and 120 properties in its portfolio.
An additional 6 buildings with a total market value of approximately 520 million Euro belong to the Paris portfolio of grundbesitz-invest, which is invested for 75 percent in West German cities and for 25 percent in European metropolises.
As a result of the acquisition of the Tour Adria, the DB Real Estate positions itself at the top of the German capital-investment companies for open-ended real estate funds, with investments in La Défense, in Paris and in France. Due to the 9 additional properties in Paris, which belong to the second open-ended real estate fund, grundbesitz-global, of the real estate investment specialist of the Deutsche Bank AG, the DB Real Estate is one of the largest foreign institutional real estate investors in France. German and North American funds had a share of 82 percent in all real estate transactions in La Défense in 2002.
