How to Structure a €1bn Pan-European Office Portfolio Sales Transaction for Four German Open-Ended Real-Estate Funds – The Union Investment ‘Aqua Portfolio’ Transaction

June 2017

Abstract

In 2015, French investor Amundi Immobilier bought the €1bn Aqua Portfolio from Union Investment Real Estate GmbH, Hamburg (“Union Investment”) in what was shaping up to be one of the first and largest portfolio transactions in 2015 and Union Investment’s first pan-European portfolio transaction. The selling entity is part of the Union Investment Group’s real-estate division, together with Union Investment Institutional Property GmbH and Union Investment Real Estate Austria AG. These three capital management companies make Union Investment Group one of Europe’s largest providers of customized real-estate solutions for private and institutional asset allocation. Its international property portfolio held on account of more than ten actively managed open-ended real-estate funds altogether is diversified across 23 national markets and amounts to approx. €30bn, predominantly consisting of office properties, hotels, shopping centers and logistics facilities as well as renewable energies.

Authors

Darius Soglowek

Legal Counsel Real Estate (Syndikusanwalt), Union Investment, Germany

Darius Soglowek LLM (Cracow), Maître en droit (Paris) has been a legal counsel with Union Investment Group’s real-estate division in Hamburg since October 2010. Prior to working for Union Investment Group, Darius was a lawyer with Hogan Lovells in Hamburg and spent some time in the firm’s London office. Darius studied law in Münster, Paris (France) and Cracow (Poland). He holds a Maîtrise en droit from the Université Paris X in Nanterre (France) and an LLM from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (Poland), for which he had received a scholarship granted by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Darius is fluent in English, French and Polish and a fully qualified German lawyer (Rechtsanwalt).

Roman Reher

Legal Counsel, Head of Real Estate Transactions, Union Investment, Germany

Dr. Roman Reher has been Union Investment Group’s Head of Transactions in the Legal Real-Estate Department since May 2009. In 2015, he also worked in Union Investment’s New York office. Before joining Union Investment Group, he was a senior associate with HoganLovells’ Real Estate Division in Hamburg and London. Prior to this position Roman worked as a lawyer for Linklaters, Frankfurt/Main, in the Corporate and M&A Division where he was, inter alia, involved in a couple of large and complex housing portfolio transactions for an American private equity investor. Roman received his PhD at the University of Hamburg in 2003. He is fluent in English and a fully qualified German lawyer (Rechtsanwalt).

Marc Lauterfeld

General Counsel Real Estate, Union Investment, Germany

Marc Lauterfeld MBA, LLM (London) has been Union Investment Group’s General Counsel Real Estate in Hamburg since July 2013. Prior to moving to Hamburg, Marc was appointed Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer of BEA Union Investment Management Limited in Hong Kong from July 2010 to June 2013. Prior to this position, he worked for Union Investment Group in Frankfurt/Main as an assistant to the Executive Board as well as legal counsel. After training as a banker at Deutsche Bank, he was awarded a Konrad Adenauer Scholarship and studied law in Bonn and Lausanne (Switzerland). Previously a Visiting Fellow at King’s College London, Marc is a lecturer at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. He holds an MBA from the Steinbeis School of Management and Innovation, Berlin, and an LLM from the University of London. Marc is fluent in English, speaks French, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese and is a fully qualified German lawyer (Rechtsanwalt).

Companies

Union Investment

Union Investment Group provides with its real-estate division customised real-estate solutions to meet the requirements of private and institutional asset allocation. Thanks to an international property portfolio diversified across 23 national markets, Union Investment Group is able to leverage the opportunities that arise from global market cycles to benefit its customers. As of 30 April 2017, Union Investment Group has fund assets of approx. 36bn euros in actively and passively managed open-ended real-estate funds for private and institutional investors, of which approx. 27,7bn euros are actively managed for private investors; 5,4bn euros are actively managed for institutional investors and 2.9bn euros passively. The property assets in actively managed open-ended real-estate funds account for approx. 30bn euros. The Legal Department Real Estate comprises of 17 in-house counsels. It advises the Union Investment Group’s real-estate division in all property/renewables-related legal matters in 23 jurisdictions, in particular transactions, asset management, financing, corporate law and investment law. The Legal Department Real Estate employs a range of law firms handling the external legal requirements and operates a panel system in Germany and many European and overseas jurisdictions.

How to Structure a €1bn Pan-European Office Portfolio Sales Transaction for Four German Open-Ended Real-Estate Funds – The Union Investment ‘Aqua Portfolio’ Transaction

Abstract

Authors

Companies

Union Investment

Union Investment

Union Investment

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